Jacksonville was founded by groups of “Yankees,” from New England, many of whom were graduates of Yale University. I can’t help but think the influence of the large town commons and greens of cities such as New Haven played a part in the design of Central Park, the outsized town square of Jacksonville. The center…
Tag: Central Illinois
Former MacMurray College, Jacksonville, Illinois
The picturesque church looks like you’re standing in the middle of a Colonial era commons, and Red Coats could march into the middle of the swath of greensward any moment. But in reality, you’re looking at the Annie Merner Chapel, at the former MacMurray college, which closed back in May of 2020. It had opened…
Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Interior
The interior of the cathedral is a simple, basilica style church with no transepts or side aisles, and a rectangular apse at the end, flanked by two colonnades in the Ionic order. The high altar is dominated by a huge mosaic of the Madonna of the Immaculate Conception, with the Latin Inscription, “There is no…
The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Exterior
The exterior of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception follows the Doric Order, in an interesting late, or as I might call it, terminal Beaux-Arts interpretation of the Greek Revival designed Joseph William McCarthy. Of course, it is architecture adapted for the modern world, as Greek temples did not have windows, whether on the side…
Campus of the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Springfield
The story of how the Diocese of Springfield came into being is perhaps a story of how the locus of social, economic and political power has migrated around the State of Illinois over the last two hundred years. It was originally the Diocese of Quincy, founded in 1853, reflecting the primacy of the Mississippi River,…
Corn Crib and Tree, Cooper Road
Update: I revisited the corncrib in May of 2024. Something about this abandoned corncrib and this copse of trees drew me to photograph the group as I drove east down Cooper Road near my family’s farm. Surely there is a backstory behind why this building is left behind, and who planted the two trees that…
Dawn, Family Farm, Deer Creek Township, March 2022
I woke up early and caught the sunrise coming up over the fields to the east. The fields are fallow for now, but in a month or two they will be brought back to life.
Clouds Breaking, Family Farm, March 2022, Deer Creek Township
As everyone in St. Louis knows, last week the weather was horrible, and it was elsewhere in the Midwest, but late on Friday the clouds broke and the sun came out, leaving dramatic light and shadow over the prairie at the family farm. As the sun set, pink and purple light shone across the fields…
Washington, Illinois, March 2022
I last photographed Washington, Illinois back in August of 2019, and I was passing through so I thought I was take a look around. My grandfather helped dig the basement of the church above with his team of horses back in the early Twentieth Century. This house nearby unfortunately has suffered a recent fire. Update:…
Metamora, Revisited
I found myself near Metamora, which I had visited back in 2011, so I went into town and looked around again. I stumbled across St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, built in a German Hallkirche style, where the buttresses are engaged to the curtain wall. There are several blind windows, as well. The rectory is attached…