Vergara's Churches

fixBuffalo readers are getting a dose of Vergara, here and recently here. The other day while walking my neighborhood I saw things I'd noticed but really hadn't seen in the past. I'd just gotten my hands on Vergara's How the Other Half Worships (2005) and went looking.

The church on Ferry Street is less than a block away from the new home of Performing Arts HS. I've always imagined there to be a coffee shop downstairs or some combination of live/work space for someone. I'd never seen it as a place of worship, until this week.

click image to enlarge

These two churches sit opposite one another on Masten, near Southampton. And again, I've no idea if these churches are active and really open on Sunday or even if the utilities are turned on. I'll be checking this out, soon.

This last church is on Purdy Street and is located next door to my first favorite vinyl victorian. Again, never saw it when I was photographing the vinyl or ever considered that people might still worship here. Didn't cross my mind.

This interest, inspired in part by Vergara's work, in places of worship is still an attempt to know and understand this small and struggling neighborhood that is beginning to wake-up, slowly on the City's near East side. I'm rather fortunate in all this. For the past 10 years, I've been listening to the gospel music from Antioch Baptist Church, 50' from my second floor office window. On Wednesday evenings, especially in the summer, the gospel music rehearsal for Sunday's service stops around 11pm...then there's jazz, long into the night. It's a small church, in a very unassuming one-story brick building. Wonder what goes on in some of these other spots.

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