Adirondack Churches

Description

Adirondack Churches: A History of Design and Building

By: Sally E. Swenson

The nineteenth century was a period of rapid religious expansion throughout the United States, paralleled by an explosive increase in the construction of churches to meet the needs of new worshipers and new communities. Sally Svenson, in Adirondack Churches: A History of Design and Building, examines this phenomenon in terms of the architecture of houses of worship built between 1825 and 1925 in the hamlets, villages, and towns of one region in upstate New York- the unique composite of public and private lands known as the Adirondack Park.

Specific examples chosen from among the more than 200 churches found within the park’s boundaries illustrate national trends and influences in religious architecture, particularly the ways in which design concepts were transmitted to and interpreted by ordinary citizens living in communities cut off from the aesthetic leadership of cities and major towns. Churches designed by well known architects provide an intriguing counterpoint to the more typical buildings that dominate the religious architectural landscape. Historical, and, in some cases, modern, photographs of Adirondack churches are juxtaposed with illustrations from the design sources – including builders’ manuals, commercially prepared plan books, and religious publications – that inspired them. Discussed, too, are several Adirondack houses of worship that received attention in journals and books published outside the region.

“Sally Svenson combines architectural history and description with perceptive and relevant social and economic background to give us an engaging, copiously illustrated study of regional religious architecture. Adirondack Churches should serve as a model for many similar projects in the future.” – Peter Williams, professor of Comparative Religion and American Studies, Miami University, Ohio, and author of Houses of God: Religion and Architecture in the United States.