Reviews for Cleveland's Vanishing Sacred Architecture (Images of America Series)

The average rating for Cleveland's Vanishing Sacred Architecture (Images of America Series) based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-05-30 00:00:00 Rachel Thurlow MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS. Like other Cleveland titles in Arcadia's Images of America series, this one is plump with photos, which I lov. Somehow, I just wish the narrative could be a little more lively. Bottom line, I'm glad for this book. It's a record of some beautiful Catholic churches that are being mothballed and in some cases, demolished, due to changing demographics. The architecture and interior decorations are so elaborate, which the book documents well! Yet, I also pine for photos that go beyond the architectural. Photos without people are so static. The few photos that include people seemed to always be exterior shots fr. news events. However, it would have been an undertaking of a whole new order of difficulty for the authors to attempt to locate former parishioners who had taken their own photos of occasions that unfolded inside the various church walls.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-04-02 00:00:00 Mariah Kissel When this book came out in 2010 sorrow reigned in the diocese of Cleveland over the closing of beautiful and historic churches. It seemed several were targeted for no apparent reason. Some of those churches had their chance to be remembered in this book. It leans heavily on pictures of St. James the Greater in Lakewood but also travels east, west and south to profile other architectural gems set to be closed. Happily, several of the congregations won their appeals from the Vatican in Rome and some of the churches in this book remain open including St. Wendelin, St. Casmir, St. Mary's, St. Adelbert and St. James. The others only live on in this book. It's obviously a labor of love which allows you to overlook typos and missing words. Sadly, the pictures are only in black and white. Color photography would have driven the cost of the book up but been even more glorious.