Visiting American churches

When I used to vacation in Europe (and even now that I live here), I always found myself visiting some chapel, church, or cathedral. Even though they start to resemble each other after a while, it's still fun to go inside to see what they look like.

The façade of St. Peter's. The tall bell tower is not part of the church; that's Albany City Hall.

So why not do the same thing when I'm traveling around in North America? Granted, the churches aren't as old, but they're still interesting. Of course, more and more churches get locked up to prevent vandalism, so you can't always go inside. On this trip we did get inside to see three churches. Three's a good number.

The nave looking toward the choir. The flags include those of the thirteen original Amercian colonies

This first one is Saint Peter's Episcopal church on State Street in downtown Albany. The current building dates from 1859. I've passed by this building all my life without ever taking notice of it. Until recently. While walking after lunch a couple of weeks ago we noticed that the doors were open, so we went in to have a look. It's even more amazing on the inside than it is on the outside.

Detail inside the choir.

The architectural style is French decorated Gothic. While we were inside, the organist was practicing, so we got to hear snippets of whatever it was he was playing on the impressive pipe organ. Very churchy. I was amazed by the brightly painted timber-framed vaulted ceiling.

The rose window and organ pipes.

Ken, Evelyn, Lewis, and I walked around inside for about fifteen minutes taking photos. As I'm sure I'll remind you often in the coming weeks, I was using my new camera and still learning how it works, especially in different lighting situations. All these shots are hand-held (no tripod) in low light, so they're a bit fuzzy, but they still give you the idea.