Lafayette, Indiana
St. Mary's Historic District
Why is it that I feel like my neighborhood is always "at war" with the good people at St. Mary's Catholic Church and the Lafayette Diocese? Good question because it's happening again so I'm taking a guess about the causes of the problem.
Once upon a time, when the church on the hillside was new, a neighborhood built up around the church. A number of parishioners built homes in that neighborhood. In the days before automobiles churches served a fairly small geographic area and people walked to church or used some form of horsepower. That is part of the reason why there were so many little rural churches...people did not want to make long trips to church.
In the beginning, the neighborhood around the church was full of parishioners. The leadership of the church, both clerical and lay were neighbors. There was a real connection to the place and to the people of that place. The automobile changed everything including the relationship between churches and their neighbors. A neighborhood church became something different. The automobile gave us the suburb. People could now live miles from their church building and yet make the trip in the same amount of time...or maybe less time. No longer were clergy looking at the same faces on Sunday that they could see every other day of the week while shopping at the neighborhood grocery store... I believe the problems we have now between the church and the neighbors of the church are the result, at least in part, of that shift in dynamics resulting from changes in transportation. I guess what I am saying in summary, is that the church is visited once or twice a week by strangers to the neighborhood.
The loss of a single building in a neighborhood might be something to regret, but in the big picture one building, with some exceptions, is not particularly dramatic or meaningful or even harmful to a neighborhood. What they don't get, what has been lost sight of, by the leaders of the church is that a neighborhood is the sum of its parts. Each tree, each stone wall, each fence, house, doorway, and garden and each person living there are parts of a bigger picture. Hacking away at one, and then another, and another individual part can only result in a less colorful, less rich whole.
The Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception under the guidance of the Catholic Diocese of Lafayette now hold a permit to remove one more element from my neighborhood. In a mere 56 days the waiting period will expire and they will have the legal right to bulldoze 1014 South Street into a pile of dust. That will be the 5th period home they have removed. The neighborhood will again get a little less colorful. I fear my neighborhood is facing a drab, monotone existence if the church continues these attacks one at a time.
My Christmas wish is that St. Mary's Church and the leaders there would become a part of my neighborhood, and not remain apart from us.
The loss of a single building in a neighborhood might be something to regret, but in the big picture one building, with some exceptions, is not particularly dramatic or meaningful or even harmful to a neighborhood. What they don't get, what has been lost sight of, by the leaders of the church is that a neighborhood is the sum of its parts. Each tree, each stone wall, each fence, house, doorway, and garden and each person living there are parts of a bigger picture. Hacking away at one, and then another, and another individual part can only result in a less colorful, less rich whole.
The Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception under the guidance of the Catholic Diocese of Lafayette now hold a permit to remove one more element from my neighborhood. In a mere 56 days the waiting period will expire and they will have the legal right to bulldoze 1014 South Street into a pile of dust. That will be the 5th period home they have removed. The neighborhood will again get a little less colorful. I fear my neighborhood is facing a drab, monotone existence if the church continues these attacks one at a time.
My Christmas wish is that St. Mary's Church and the leaders there would become a part of my neighborhood, and not remain apart from us.
#save1014southstreet
#findanotherway
#stopthedestruction
#myChristmaswish
2 comments:
Very poignant closing thought!
Some very important observations, Quentin. The rise of the personal automobile certainly changed certainly revolutionized the American cityscape, rarely for the better. It is interesting how, with a few exceptions, Lafayette's downtown churches have largely chosen to relegate themselves to their own island of city blocks, spurning the physical closeness of neighbors. This unwillingness to share proximity with the wider community has resulted in the unfortunate loss of many historic buildings that would have been an asset to our city. St. James leveled much of the surrounding block over the course of 4 decades; Trinity Methodist and Central Presbyterian have demolished at least 2 homes each in the last 10 years; St. Boniface began its series of demolitions in the 1950s, beginning with a row of handsome Italiantes at Ninth and Ferry Streets; First Baptist has likewise demolished 2-3 structures; and St. Mary's, of course, continues the unfortunate trend. I really have to give credit to St. John's and Sons of Abraham for being some of the most respectful of our city's historic architecture.
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