Roman Polanski

It's funny how in the days of Obama where the rich are routinely singled out and excoriated it's OK that Polanski bought off his victim and tried to escape the legal ramifications of what he did and the Hollywood community is fine with that. But you know what? I'm alright with all this because now Woody Allen's come out in support of Polanski. Actually, now I have to go wash after reading that sentence back to myself.

The Other Lutherans

St. John's Lutheran - 216 Jewett Avenue - Port Richmond


View Larger Map

St. John's Lutheran, an old German congregation in an old Episcopal church in Port Richmond, is a member of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. Of the two major Lutheran bodies, it is the more conservative and smaller. I've mentioned before that it's relationship with the larger, liberal Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is like the Sharks and the Jets. The only time I've been in the church was at the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. P. back in 1988. It's got a very cool little cemetery out back.







View Larger Map

More Lutherans

St. Paul's - St. Luke's Lutheran Church (formerly Wasa Lutheran) - 186 Decker Ave - Port Richmond


View Larger Map

Originally founded as Vasa Lutheran by Swedes in 1908, this was the church of my mother's family. One of her sisters is still very active in the congregation.
In 1971, the renamed St. Luke's Church merged with the dwindling St. Paul's Church (originally a German congregation) from over on Cary Avenue in West New Brighton creating the new and improved St. Paul's - St. Luke's Lutheran Church.

The old, sold, and condemned St. Paul's Lutheran Church - Cary Ave. and Caroline St. - West New Brighton

View Larger Map


Our Savior Lutheran Church - 557 Bard Avenue - West New Brighton


View Larger Map

My mother always told me how Our Savior existed only as a basement through the early sixties. It had relocated from that old Scandinavian stronghold, Port Richmond, to Forest and Bard Avenues and could only afford to excavate the present basement of the church and throw a flat roof over that. Eventually the congregation raised enough money and built the present modern and, inside at least, surprisingly beautiful sanctuary and chapel. Not surprisingly, the Norwegian heritage of the congregation is reflected in the clean Scandinavian modern wood work throughout the church.
The church parsonage (not pictured) is one of the several remaining stone houses in the area built by the opthamologist Samuel MacKenzie Elliot in the mid 19th century.




The original Our Savior Lutheran was located on Nicholas and Hatfield Avenues. Now it's a Moose Lodge.

The Church Project Lite

So I'm too lazy/too overwhelmed/too tired, or just too something indefinable to carry out the Church Project the way I originally intended to. So...
So, what I'll do is just get googlemap shots and the occasional old timey picture of the North Shore churches and some information about them.
I'll do it by denomination, starting with my home court, the Lutheran churches.

DAY ONE

Trinity Evangelical Lutheran - 309 Saint Pauls Ave - Stapleton


View Larger Map





My old church and elementary school. Founded by Germans back in the nineteenth century, Trinity really took off in the early twentieth century under the stewardship of Pastor Fredrick Sutter. In the google picture you can see the damage to the steeple caused by the tornado that ravaged the North Shore 2 years ago.


Zion Lutheran - 505 Watchogue Road, Westerleigh


View Larger Map

The group that founded Zion Lutheran started as an adult Norwegian Sunday school class in a no longer standing building in Port Richmond. At some point they collected enough money and built a beautiful neo-Gothic church on Bennett Street alongside Port Richmond Park. In the sixties they relocated to Westerleigh and built the kind of ugly modern church they still occupy on Watchogue and Willowbrook Roads.










I started with Trinity and Zion because they represent the two most active and vibrant Lutheran congregations remaining on Staten Island. They also still have a strong sense of their initial ethnic origins. Trinity was still holding German services in the early eighties.

They also represent two distinct wings of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Trinity came from money (particularly the Stapleton beer barons of the nineteenth century) and Zion from working class poverty. Today Trinity maintains a much more ritual filled worship service and Zion's is more stripped down.

The great wave of Lutheranism that once represented Germans, Norwegians and Swedes in numerous churches has receded with the demographic changes across the Island as well as the general collapse of the mainline denominations.

I want one. That's all.

THIS is what I want for Christmas.

Some google shots of churches.

I'm in a lousy mood (someone I haven't spoken to in a while and didn't know was sick died) and doing this makes me feel a little better. I went for the grand old style churches for this one. Give me a house of worship that doesn't make me feel like I'm in a warehouse or convention center anytime. I like my churches to be special and extraordinary and NOT make me feel like I could physically be anywhere other than a church.



View Larger Map

St. Peter's R.C. - New Brighton



View Larger Map

Trinity Evangelical Lutheran - Stapleton



View Larger Map

Christ Church (Epsicopalian) - New Brighton



View Larger Map

Church of the Immaculate Conception R.C. - Stapleton



View Larger Map

St. Paul's Episcopal Church - Stapleton

It's just like the Acropolis. Really.

View Larger Map

Definitely one of my favorite homes on Staten Island. While the house itself is nothing extraordinary, the sculpture collection makes this place special.

Port Richmond - land of opportunities

In honor of Mr. and Mrs. Lawgiver's Port Richmond real estate undertaking, here's some shots of Port Richmond and its surrounding areas. It really is still a beautiful neighborhood, despite the economic and white flight that hammered it in the seventies and eighties. Sure parts of the area are pretty sketchy but even those spots have some wonderful buildings.






View Larger Map


Trantor and Hooker




View Larger Map

Richmond Terrace and Heberton Railroad Depot




View Larger Map


The Ritz Theater




View Larger Map

Again - The Ritz





View Larger Map

Sharpe and Grove Train Station






View Larger Map

Faber and Richmond Terrace





View Larger Map


Dr. Johnson's House - Albion and Heberton