Woodward Presbyterian Church, or rather St. Curvy, has a story like many churches that once thrived in the American mid-west. Founded in 1908 with a membership of 163, it was tasked to serve the north part of the city. With the Reverend Sherman L. Divine at the helm, the church began to seek money and land to build their church. The land the church still sits on today was donated by Mrs. Tracy McGregor. The firm of Sidney Rose Badgley & William Nicklas was hired to design the church. Construction began late in 1908, and by the time the cornerstone was laid on the 1stRead More →

City Methodist, a grand old church brought low by the slow march of time. Opened in 1925, four one million dollars, most of that being fund-raised by Reverend William Seaman, and US Steel footing some of the bills. Constructed in the English Gothic style, the sanctuary alone stands nine stories tall and could house 950 people. But the church was more than just the sanctuary. The whole complex had a school and theatre for traditional plays and films. It also had space for storefronts. At its peak, there were 3,000 members on the church roll. But when the steel industry crashed…the people moved away fromRead More →

This is what it’s all been leading up to. A print, there’s something unique about holding a print in your hand, looking down at the patterns of light and shadow being brought out in blacks, whites, and grays, it’s magic. Well actually its science, the perfect blend of art and science. Creating the print is a rather neat process from start to end and when you sit down and think about the sheer amount of control you have over the whole process is fantastic. You get to pick the camera (and in some cases the lens), film stock. Then you can meter it the wayRead More →

Negotiations to bring a higher-education campus to the small town of Germantown began in 1885, initially to be a satellite campus of the Cincinnati Wesleyan College. However, that did not end up being the case, and the town council found themselves in the office of Orvon Graff Brown, who at the time was the president of the Ohio Conservatory of Music and the School of Oratory. Brown agreed to build a branch of his College in Germantown. But by 1886, Brown was set on establishing a whole new college in the town, and by 1888 the Twin Valley College was established by charter and byRead More →

My car wound its way along the dusty road deep in Ontario’s cottage country; I knew where I was going, but it was based on probably outdated satellite imagery and information from someone whom I didn’t trust. But as I was in the area I decided to take a chance. The gates to the old Seven Mile Island property were wide open inviting me to come in, not a sign of life as I drove along the narrow track road along the shores of the lake. Oddly enough it began to remind me of the old children’s novel “Gone Away Lake” which was a favouriteRead More →

So what do tractors and a never completed nuclear power station have in common? Well nothing really…except in the case of a small station somewhere in the volunteer state, better known as Tennessee. The power station was one of many that were planned by the TVA through the 1970s to bring clean, efficiant power to the southern United States. Of course as a student of history there were several accidents in the 1980s that really turned the world view on nuclear power in a negitive light. Chernobyl in the former USSR and the Three Mile Island incident in the United States. Then there was theRead More →