This is a brief history of my undertaking with regards to the places-of-worship project. Over the last 12 years I have been travelling about 3 Maritime provinces (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick & Prince Edward Island) photographing any and all places of worship I could find. The reason I began the project was that I could foresee a large shift in the religious industry and with the changes many of these heritages would be lost and forgotten. I have about 3500 photos at this time. I have completed a photo inventory of all (that I could find) churches, synagogues, mosques etc. in all 3 provinces and in 2018 began to catalogue those in Newfoundland & Labrador. When visiting each site I collected any historical information I found there as well as recording GPS data for the location.
Since the early times of European settlement in North America, the local church was a major institution in the new and growing communities of this fledgling country. In the rural regions, this was the place that the whole community gathered at least once a week, every week of the year. Thus these were where local people swapped news from within the community and from abroad. This is where the young people met and began courtship. Here is where the community would gather to make community decisions, to celebrate holy days, to learn, to gather for emergencies (the bells were used to summon the population for fire fighting, search and rescue, or even sanctuary in case of attack).
This website is being developed to allow public to see these photos and read any additional information I was able to collect on site.. In quite a number of cases (~15%) these buildings that I have already photographed no longer exist; they .have been demolished, moved, repurposed, or have been abandoned to decay and collapse except that their memory is fading from human consciousness. Forty years ago there was a train station in nearly every town and village in every Canadian province. Today there are very few left, with those having been converted into tourist bureaus, libraries, and craft shops. This heritage has been lost to future generations. In 50 years from now, researchers will be able to look back at the photos and information presented here and be able to discuss the history of our times and past times from an informed historical view. These will become the archive. Genealogy is popular these days, among the older generations. Now these pictures will be available to show descendants some of the conditions or customs of the older times of their ancestors and forepersons.
In future, mapping functions for the locations and searching through the collected data will be added to the site. I am inviting churches, parishes, community groups, heritage associations and others to provide histories of their community worship centres (past and present) for inclusion on the website. Pictures (jpeg format) from previous decades may also be submitted. All submissions will be vetted and credited to those submitting or if preferred can be added as an anonymous submissions.Methodology, assumptions, inclusions and exclusions
When I first began the project I would go for a drive and photograph what I could find. This was neither organized nor efficient as I would often miss a location and have to return. Then I began to search through internet sites for listings, but these were not always up to date or complete and some polities did not have public sites. As a result about one in four pictures I have taken were of sites/structures I did not know of, but just happened upon. I have photographed buildings and sites that I have been able to confirm is or was a religious site where community members have met regularly for services and worship. However, I have not included airports, hospitals, funeral homes or cinemas/theatres which are primarily for other purposes. I have included Ba’Hai, Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Hindu, and Sikh faith sites. I have included buildings that have the structure of a worship site, even if I could not establish the polity of its origin. I have excluded Masonic, Knights of Columbus and Orangeman’s Halls, even though many have the look of a worship site.
I record GPS location data at each site, locating the main entrance for worship. If it is the site of a previous structure, an estimation of the main entrance is used, or in the cases where a monument has been erected. For the most part I have not taken interior photos as most of the time the site is not in use when I am there. Many of the sites do not have civic numbers posted and these were then estimated from neighbouring buildings. When estimates were impossible, numbers have not been assigned.
by Jim Spurway