Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Pictures of Ventura Churches


Back in September of 2014 I started a new blog for the same reason that many people start blogs. I was interested in something and couldn't find much information about it. I'd driven past this church, or at least I assumed it was a church, but there was nothing on it to identify it. (Rick's note: Being a bit more creative with my Google search, I cane across a tax record for this building. It was a church in the 80's, but I wasn't able to find out why it isn't anymore. If you have some information, please send it to me. Thanks.)

And as I drove around Ventura, I'd see other churches, or what I assumed to be churches, but I didn't always see anyone near them. This one on Main Street always looks on the verge of being abandoned, for instance, though I do see a congregation. It appears as though it might have been pretty at some point.


Others seem to be very well maintained, with large congregations. This one is at the top of Poli, and has an amazing view of the ocean. As part of my Lenten sacrifice a few years back, I made my kids go with me to various churches for Sunday services, while going to our own church Saturday night, in part because I wanted to see the inside of this particular building. It's nice on the inside too.

Years ago, I was visiting Budapest, Hungary, and walked through the Hilton Hotel, which was built on top of and uses walls from both an old church and monastery. Part of the historian in me was shocked, but then I thought to myself, if something can't be preserved as a whole (and apparently the buildings were abandoned and unsafe), then parts should be reused. The hotel had some displays showing the old walls, and explanations in several languages as to what was done.

With that, it's interesting to see churches repurposed, either by new congregations, such as this, which went from being a run-down and apparently abandoned building to becoming a lovingly maintained Buddhist temple.

Or this, another building that was in pretty bad shape when we moved into town in the 90's and is now a bed and breakfast that has excellent reviews on the internet, and is apparently haunted as a bonus! 

When I initially had the idea, my original plan was to write little histories of the church buildings, the congregations within and their part in Ventura, and that is still what I intend to do somewhere down the road. But I thought to myself that if I waited to gather the information, I'd never start the project. I also had an idea of taking pictures with several different cameras for different effects, but that proved to be impractical for the amount of time I had to work with. 

Now, if I happen by, have time, and the light is good, I pull out my iPhone 4 and snap a picture. I then use the picture, and if the church has a website, I try to link to it in case someone stumbles across the site and would like more information. I've never tried to find churches in any other way-I have to cross paths with them in my wanderings about the city. That's how I've come across places like this one.

Surprisingly, at least to me, is that some of these churches have no website. Also surprising, is that some of the websites have no pictures of their house of worship, as if they are ashamed of where they gather. My iPhone picture, along with the Google Maps street view, appear to be the only picture of some of these churches on the internet.

I publish a new photo every Sabbath, except when the synagogue comes up, which will published on the Shabbat of that week. I'm writing this on Dec. 28, and I went bike riding yesterday to take a bunch of pictures and have them set up to publish through April, 2015. I think I've all of the Avenues, and I'm working my way through Mid-Town.

On another note, this is the 53rd post of the year, making two consecutive years where I've posted an average of once a week. 

Thanks for reading, and have a great New Year!



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