St. Lego's Church Oct 2016

mookster · Oct 8, 2016

Getting into the tail end of my last Stateside trip now - and by rights it wouldn't be one of my adventures if I didn't get to explore at least one church. In a country rapdily losing it's faith there are a massive amount of shuttered churches for the taking of all architectural styles and sizes, some small and some, like this one, massive. After striking out at numerous other churches and driving through some of the most dangerous and deprived neighbourhoods I've ever seen (places where you lock your car doors and close your windows and barely stop at stop signs...) we found one that was accessible.

Great, we thought, although it did happen to be in a particularly rough area of the city which meant this was going to be one speedy explore. There is a large derelict school and rectory attached to the church also which we were convinced people were living in so we restricted ourselves to the main church and ran around grabbing a few photos. After twenty minutes or so we both decided we'd had enough and wanted to get out, both for our own safety and to make sure our car was still there or hadn't been broken into!

It's a real shame it's in such a bad neighbourhood because the church itself is absolutely stunning and has minimal vandalism. It closed twice, once in the early 90s before being refitted and taken over by another religious organisation who operated from it until a few years back. One of the things people say when they see the place is how it looks almost artificial, the original stained glass was removed after closure and when the church was refitted and reopened they had painted windows instead of proper stained glass which lends it a weird effect inside.

If I was with a bigger group of people I would have spent a lot longer in here for sure, safety in numbers and all that. But with just the two of us in a bad neighbourhood it was decided discretion was the better part of valour and we headed off quickly.