Early on in my days as a reporter, I worked a Tuesday-Sunday week and often had assignments in city churches. It gave me a sense of Plainfield as a place of strong faith, with congregations that created some magnificent church homes.
Property records at City Hall showed about 100 houses of worship and in my travels I came across maybe as many as another 100 more small religious groups meeting in storefronts, church basements or even schools while they worked toward achieving an edifice of their own. I learned of revivals in tents or in the old Strand Theater, processions through the streets and witnessing in public.
On Saturday, visitors can get a glimpse of the institutions that have sustained the city through decades and centuries. The simple Friends Meeting House that dates back to 1788 and some richly decorated churches built in the 19th Century are among nine sites on a tour. Mark Spivey gives all the details in this article.
The Plainfield Public Library has a related exhibit, Building Faith in Plainfield: Exploring the City’s History Through its Houses of Worship, presented by the Local History Department. From Sarah Hull of that department:
Over 150 photographs, vintage postcards, original blueprints, artifacts, and ephemera representing 36 local houses of worship will be on public display throughout the Library. Original photographs, as well as prints made from glass plate and 8” x 10” film negatives, are from the Library’s vast Historical Photograph Collection. Materials date from the 1790s to the 1970s. The exhibition will run through June 2013.
--Bernice
With that many people, and that many churches, you would think Plainfield would be one of the holiest places on earth, and all the citizens would get along.
ReplyDeleteI guess going to church and being good and kind don't always go together.