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My friend, Jeff Belanger, snapped this shot of me during a portrait shoot and I edited it. He nailed it! Thanks Jeff!
Bonus points if you know anything at all about Ripton, MA! LOL!
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Fairhaven, Massachusetts
November 2024
Unitarian Memorial Church is a historic church on 102 Green Street in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, home to the Unitarian Universalist Society of Fairhaven.
The congregation was founded in 1819, moved into the Washington Street Christian Meetinghouse in 1832, and called its first minister in 1840. The Reverend María Uitti McCabe is its currently serving minister, and the Society President is Keith Murphy. UUSF is a member congregation of the Boston-based Unitarian Universalist Association, and a designated GLBTQA Welcoming Congregation, a UUA Honor Congregation, and a part of the Green Sanctuary movement. Services are held in the neo-Gothic sanctuary at 10:00 a.m. from September through mid-June each year. The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.
The Unitarian Memorial Church in Fairhaven was built, financed and donated to the Unitarians in 1904 by Henry H. Rogers in memory of his mother, Mary Eldredge Huttleston. The church was designed by Boston architect Charles Brigham in a Gothic Revival style.[4] It is one hundred fourteen feet (34.75m) in height, one hundred feet (30.48m) long in body and fifty-three feet (16.15m) wide. The nave is thirty-two feet (9.75m) wide and seventy-one feet (21.64m) long. The main aisle is sixty-two feet (18.90m) long and six feet (1.83m) wide. The church, parish house and former parsonage (now Harrop Center) of the Unitarian Society are so placed as to form three sides of a quadrangle, set among well-kept lawns and shrubbery. Granite (locally quarried) with Indiana limestone decorative carvings dominate the exterior while marble and limestone carvings dominate the interior. All stonework artistry was created by forty-five Italian craftsmen brought to Fairhaven by Rogers.
Sanctuary
All the woodwork in the sanctuary is English bog oak carved by forty-five Bavarian craftsmen. No two carvings are alike on the thirty-two pews, the ornate pulpit, the organ pipe cases, the choir screen or the doors. In the rafters above the pews are ten wooden angels covered in beaten gold. Each ten-foot-high angel holds articles and bear inscriptions symbolizing ten attributes of the intellectual life. The south entrance has twelve bronze symbols of the zodiac inlaid in the marble floor.
Tags: Unitarian church memorial Fairhaven Massachusetts MA VisitMA New England Henry H. Rogers Unitarians gothic architect architecture Unitarian Memorial Church granite Unitarian Society stonework marble limestone Mary Eldredge Huttleston Coveney Bisbee Brigham worship holy organ brass pipe pipe organ woodwork carvings Unitarian Universalist society Sony A7RV hdr high dynamic range photography revival Robert Reid stained glass Green Street Frank Grace Frank C. Grace Trig Photography Unitarian Universalist Association Charles Bringham gothic revival tower bronze copper
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Winter Photography by Jim Morrison
Winter Photography
our love's in jeopardy
Winter Photography
our love's in jeopardy
Sit up all night, talking, smoking
Count the dead & wait for morning
(Will warm names & faces come again
Does the silver forest end?)
Tags: Winter photography Jim Morrison Taunton Massachusetts Boyden Nature Refuge Sony A7RV panorama snow covered forest path trees blue sky branches
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Fall River, Massachusetts
December 2024
Background
*Jewish settlement of Fall River began in 1875, and increased during the 1880’s and ‘90’s during a period of high emigration rates of Jews from Eastern Europe to the U.S.
*Between 1884 and 1926, seven synagogues emerged across Fall River, including Temple Beth El, which was formed as “Congregation Beth El” in 1924, with the current building being built between 1928 and 1929.
*The first gatherings of Congregation Beth El met for services in a music hall on Franklin St. in 1926. In 1927, a wooden church was purchased and converted into a synagogue; after only 5 months, this building was burned to the ground in the “Great Fire” of 1928. Some members rushed into the burning building and managed to salvage a number of the Torah scrolls and the magnificent menorahs that grace either side of our present bima.
Current Building on High Street
*In March 1928, a house and lot were purchased by Congregation Beth El on the corner of High and Locust Streets (our current location) from Mr. Abraham Zais. The house was razed, and a young architect, Samuel Dubitsky, was engaged to design and oversee the construction of a new temple.
*The cornerstone was laid on October 28, 1928, and the building, named Temple Beth El, was dedicated on Sept. 22, 1029.
*Shortly after this, land was purchased for the Temple Beth El Cemetery.
*Temple Beth El reached its zenith during the 1950’s, under the spiritual leadership of Rabbi Samuel S. Ruderman when its membership swelled to over 600 families, with 450 students in the Hebrew school. During these years a large school building and auditorium were built. Also during this period there was a celebrated series of adult educational forums, called the “Adult Education Series,” featuring internationally-recognized scholars and public speakers. This forum was open to subscription by the wider Fall River public. Both Jews and non-Jews packed the hall for these lectures, enjoying this unique opportunity in Fall River to widen their horizons and enrich their minds.
*With the decline of the textile industry and related businesses in Fall River, the Jewish population of Fall River has, sadly, also declined. During the 60’s and 70’s, the sons and daughters of the Jewish families who had prospered in Fall River went off to the best colleges and universities, and had the chance to experience life in larger metropolitan areas. Most did not return to settle and raise their families here. Like synagogues and churches all across the United States, we are wrestling with how to meet the unique challenges of contemporary society’s approach to spirituality and religious and institutional affiliation. However, we still have a wonderful core of warm, down-to-earth communally- and spiritually-engaged members, and we have recently had a small upswing in Temple membership, largely due to our new spiritual leaders, Rabbi Mark Elber and Cantor Shoshana Brown (see below under “Spiritual Leadership”), who have revived the Temple Hebrew School after many years of dormancy.
*Temple Beth El has always had a vibrant Sisterhood (and in the past had a Brotherhood as well). The Sisterhood continues to support the Temple in many ways, with a special emphasis on sponsoring such events as the annual Chanukah party and the 2nd Night of Passover Community Seder, and maintaining the Temple Judaica gift shop.
*Temple Beth El houses an excellent Jewish library, holding thousands of books, and is still adding new selections. Members have full borrowing privileges.
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