An interesting picture of an old church

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St Joseph’s Byzantine Church in Cleveland was closed in the 1980’s after most of the congregation left the area.
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I wonder, too. Last week I saw some photos of a beautiful church with columns that was in ruins after being abandoned. I think it may have been in the Cleveland area. Hopefully that didn’t happen to this magnificent church, but it’s horrible and mind-boggling that abandonment and decay would be happening to any beautiful old church building in the US.
 
Tragic:

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AbideWithMe said:
I wonder, too. Last week I saw some photos of a beautiful church with columns that was in ruins after being abandoned. I think it may have been in the Cleveland area. Hopefully that didn’t happen to this magnificent church, but it’s horrible and mind-boggling that abandonment and decay would be happening to any beautiful old church building in the US.
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I find it sad that the work of so many craftsmen and a place built to honor God falls into ruin, but I am not surprised by it when I consider changing neighborhood demographics. Churches need people to sustain them, and good people tend to move away from high crime, drug ridden areas. Old church buildings are very expensive to maintain. Imagine the heat bill alone.
 
Deus_tecum said:
I find it sad that the work of so many craftsmen and a place built to honor God falls into ruin, but I am not surprised by it when I consider changing neighborhood demographics. Churches need people to sustain them, and good people tend to move away from high crime, drug ridden areas. Old church buildings are very expensive to maintain. Imagine the heat bill alone.
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You mean, people of means tend to move away from crime. Poor people have little choice but to stay where they are.
 
Ohio was the heart of the Steel, tire, auto, and mechanical manufacturing from the industrial revolution till it’s peak in the 1950s. This was particularly true for Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Dayton. Pennsylvania also was a “steel” king at roughly the same time.

Since the 1950s, which again was the peak of Cleveland’s population many factors began to erode the population there. Among them was recognition of the pollution problem which now plagues industrial Asia, foreign competition, crime, and the flight of the middle class from big cities to the suburbs.

usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/census/2011-03-09-ohio-census_N.htm

Cleveland lost 17% of its population to fall to 396,815 — its fewest inhabitants since 1900. The city peaked in 1950 at 914,808. More residents abandoned the city from 2000 to 2010 than in the 1990s.

I would guess this church and it’s congregation fell victim to that trend in Ohio. In the past few years there has been interest in urban renewal in a few big cities, but For some places I guess, like this beautiful old Church, it was too late. Truly Cleveland is the unsung Detroit. The same could be said for Dayton really. It lost AC Delco, Steel, NCR, GM and more. Dayton and other Ohio cities are full of beautiful decaying old mansions and buildings with too few resources to go around.
 
It’s so sad to see. There is a huge old church in St. Louis, MO. I don’t know it it’s still standing. You could see the steeple as you entered the city from the east. I attended an evening prayer service there once ten years ago. A huge church and barely any people in it, trying to stay in business ministering to the now mostly non-Catholic neighborhood. I’ve always been afraid to ask if it’s still open and/or standing.🤷
 
Interesting with the church having been built in 1933 for Byzantine Catholics, as it shows the heavy Latinizations of the period. The pictures, like those in the OP and the blog, showing the Latinization are always neat to see, if a bit sad as well.

However, abandonment pictures are always sad to see indeed.
 
Beautiful.
I would never ever have guessed it was an Eastern Catholic Church, rather than Latin Church.
 
neokarny said:
Interesting with the church having been built in 1933 for Byzantine Catholics, as it shows the heavy Latinizations of the period. The pictures, like those in the OP and the blog, showing the Latinization are always neat to see, if a bit sad as well.

However, abandonment pictures are always sad to see indeed.
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There’s a parish in Los Angeles that’s both a Latin and Maronite parish. It was originally St. Peter’s parish, but it was given to the Maronites by Cardinal McIntyre in 1966 and later became Our Lady of Mount Lebanon-St. Peter’s Cathedral when the eparchy was erected in 1994. ourladyofmountlebanon.com/

On an interesting note, my parish (Latin Rite) has some Byzantine architectural features.
 
KS_Housewife said:
It’s so sad to see. There is a huge old church in St. Louis, MO. I don’t know it it’s still standing. You could see the steeple as you entered the city from the east. I attended an evening prayer service there once ten years ago. A huge church and barely any people in it, trying to stay in business ministering to the now mostly non-Catholic neighborhood. I’ve always been afraid to ask if it’s still open and/or standing.🤷
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Do you remember what it was called or what side of the city it was on? There’s a beautiful church on the near north side that no longer has a parish, but it is still used for weddings, concerts, and events. It’s now called the Shrine of St. Joseph, but I don’t remember what it was called before. That could be the one you are thinking of. There’s also the Old Cathedral, which is clearly visable as you enter the city, and St Francis de Salles Oratory which has a huge steeple, but is further south than downtown. I imagine you can see the steeple, depending on which bridge you take over.
 
CatholicLife said:
It was sold and later abandoned. It’s now in ruins,

fortmarinus.com/blog/966/
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That’s a beautiful church. Sort of upsets me as to what will be the future of many Catholic churches in the U.S. if our economy continues to worsen and people fall away from the faith. It kind of reminds me of the pictures we see online of many abandoned buildings in Detroit.
 
Allegra said:
That’s unfortunate.
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Yes it is, making a value judgement on people who live in high-crime, drug-infested areas, as if people in nicer neighborhoods are not the sinners we need to worry about, or not sinners at all.

We have all sinned and fallen short. Even the rich. Even people in nice houses. And poor people go to church. I have seen many poor people in very nice churches that they have built themselves. I am sure that the Holy Father wants them to keep coming, as well.
 
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