The Giving Tree In Black And White

The Giving Tree

Rest After Vanquishing The Spirits

'Tis Nothing Left

A Re-Post - Pleasant Grove Baptist Church

This is a re-post of an image I first published a couple of weeks ago right here. I typically try to only post images once, but this is a special case. Read on to discover why....

Pleasant Grove Baptist Church was over 130 years old. In the 1990's the FAA deemed the church an obstruction to the "airport safety zone" of the Charlottesville Albemarle Airport. Now, admittedly, the church is near the flight path of the airport. In fact, several ILS towers were literally in its back yard. However, this could have been remedied with a fence. Instead, in 2009, the airport purchased the church and its land and a new church was built down the street. You can read all about it in this newspaper article.

Ultimately, in my opinion, there was no reason to demolish this historic church (which, by the way, the Commonwealth of Virginia deemed to not be historic). The fact of the matter is, there is little need to tear down perfectly good, historically valuable structures when they are out in the middle of the country and proving to be no real hindrance to progress. The airport opened 80 years after the church was constructed and had operated without interference to flights for about 40 years. In fact, many pilots relied on the steeple of the church as a landmark for a very long time. This entire episode really angers me. However, I am just happy I had an opportunity last month to photograph the structure before demolition occurred!

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I will post more on the church, what's left now and the machine that was used (which, regardless of what it did to the church is really cool!) throughout this week. Although, it looks like my plans might be interrupted by nice, big late-season snowstorm here in the Washington, D.C. area, so you might see some snow pictures later this week!

Technical Whiz-Bang Stuff: This is a five-shot HDR image, captured with an Olympus E-P2 and a Rokinon 7.5mm F3.5 Fisheye Lens, assembled in Photomatix and processed lightly in Snapseed on the iPad.

Enjoy!