Customer Reviews

A Guide to Cleveland's Sacred Landmarks

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Now HERE'S something I wish we could see more of; guides to historic urban churches.

American cities, and so-called "rust belt" cities in particular, are full of beautiful urban churches. So many of these important buildings anchored the immigrant neighborhoods in which they stand, and are sadly deteriorated, neglected, burned or demolished. They are enormously important structues, both in historic and artistic contexts. We should survey and catalog every one of them before they disappear, and to increase their visibility to people who may be able to save them.

That's exactly the idea behind this book, and what a great city for such a survey! Cleveland, like other rust-belt towns - Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Detroit, St. Louis - just to name a few, has an impressive collection of historic churches and temples, imagined, funded, and built mostly by immigrants seeking to transplant their spiritual culture to a new place. From huge cathedrals to local Catholic parish churches, they're all in this book. There are over 200 individual structures featured in the book, with reference to another 50. Coverage is STRICTLY limited to the Cleveland city limits. The large, stone Protestant churches that serve wealthy suburban congregations are absent from this survey. Too bad, but all the city landmarks you expect to see (like Trinity Cathedral and St. Michael's) are here.

The book is in a somewhat standard architecture guide format. Each building includes a small monochrome photograph and a descriptive essay. I must say, the building selection and the text supporting it really stand out. The photographs are not so good, mostly old archival images that do not display the artistic qualities of the churches well.

Potential readers should consider this book primarily as a reference work rather than a browsing volume or a tourist guide. It's really intended for architectural historians and for readers who have a keen interest in ecclesiastical architecture. Preservationists should be particularly interested! We can't allow another disaster like the demolition of St. Agnes to happen again!

Now HERE'S something I wish we could see more of; guides to historic urban churches.

American cities, and so-called "rust belt" cities in particular, are full of beautiful urban churches. So many of these important buildings anchored the immigrant neighborhoods in which they stand, and are sadly deteriorated, neglected, burned or demolished. They are enormously important structues, both in historic and artistic contexts. We should survey and catalog every one of them before they disappear, and to increase their visibility to people who may be able to save them.

That's exactly the idea behind this book, and what a great city for such a survey! Cleveland, like other rust-belt towns - Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Detroit, St. Louis - just to name a few, has an impressive collection of historic churches and temples, imagined, funded, and built mostly by immigrants seeking to transplant their spiritual culture to a new place. From huge cathedrals to local Catholic parish churches, they're all in this book. There are over 200 individual structures featured in the book, with reference to another 50. Coverage is STRICTLY limited to the Cleveland city limits. The large, stone Protestant churches that serve wealthy suburban congregations are absent from this survey. Too bad, but all the city landmarks you expect to see (like Trinity Cathedral and St. Michael's) are here.

The book is in a somewhat standard architecture guide format. Each building includes a small monochrome photograph and a descriptive essay. I must say, the building selection and the text supporting it really stand out. The photographs are not so good, mostly old archival images that do not display the artistic qualities of the churches well.

Potential readers should consider this book primarily as a reference work rather than a browsing volume or a tourist guide. It's really intended for architectural historians and for readers who have a keen interest in ecclesiastical architecture. Preservationists should be particularly interested! We can't allow another disaster like the demolition of St. Agnes to happen again!