P is for Presbyterian

This Presbyterian church in Madison is near the train station. It was built in 1954, and it’s one of the tallest buildings in Madison. I think. I am not entirely sure this is a fact.

But there were certainly Presbyterian churches around the area before 1954!

This one was built in 1825 on Main Street, and it was the second Presbyterian church in Madison. In the book from whence it came, the caption mentions something vague about the Civil War, and churches getting divisive, and I guess this 1825 church was built because of that.

Oh and whoever decided it would be a good idea to do an etching of the church from an angle where there’s a giant tree blocking the entire building… good choice, Unknown Artist, good choice.

 

Reference:
Cunningham, John T. (1998). Images of America: Madison. Arcadia Publishing: Dover, NH.

O is for Our Lady of Peace

Our Lady of Peace is the Catholic church in New Providence. The congregation was founded in February 1919, from parishioners of St. Teresa’s (Summit) and St. Mary’s (Berkeley Heights) who had gotten sick of traveling so far (by foot, or by buggy) every week.

The congregation initially met in the Borough Hall’s upper room for about year, until the lot next door was purchased and Our Lady of Peace’s first church was completed in December 1919. Its small interior could seat 162 people in total.

(This is the original 1919 church.)

Unsurprisingly, the church was horribly overcrowded by 1950, even with five Masses every Sunday.

To resolve this, in 1954, Our Lady of Peace moved down the street, temporarily held Masses in a 500-seat “basement church,” and made plans to build a permanent church. However, between 1950 and 1960, New Providence’s population tripled, which nobody had really planned for. Just three years later, in 1957, even the large basement church was so overcrowded that it needed to hold seven Sunday Masses to accommodate everyone.

While finalizing the plans for a permanent church, an “interim”/”multi-purpose” church was built and first used in 1961.

(All of these not-churches that were being built were apparently within the plans; the site was eventually intended to become a large campus for the church, school, and convent of ten nuns, so the basement and multi-purpose room were buildings that they would’ve been constructing anyway.)

The new church was designed in 1964:

Architect [Edward W.] Fanning laid out dozens of schemes, made scores of sketches and complete redesigns before one of them met Father Kelly’s requirements [i.e. "modern, up-to-date," and large enough for the growing population] and the essential principles for church design established by Vatican II.

Finally, in 1965, they broke ground for the new construction. The church was finished and its first Mass was held in 1966.

 

References:

Gonczlik, J. & Coddington, J. (1998). Images of America: New Providence. Arcadia Publishing: Charleston, SC.

Our Lady of Peace Parish. (2010). Parish history. Available http://olpnp.com/59-2/parish-history/

Orleans, F.W. (1977). Church of Our Lady of Peace. Custombook, Inc.: South Hackensack, NJ.

N is for Narcissus

Now, I know perfectly well that these are daffodils, but the genus is still Narcisseae, and I say it counts.

These particular daffodils make me happy at the train station every morning. Lately, they’ve been marking where I stand to wait.

And they smell so fricking good.

M is for the Mall in Milburn

…also known as the Short Hills Mall. (Short Hills is a subsection of Milburn.) It’s very posh, and it’s a 5-minute drive from New Providence.

…okay, maybe 10 minutes.

Life

I lost someone very dear to me this past weekend, and I’ve been debating whether or not to bring it up here. I don’t want to concern anyone, it doesn’t really affect any of my readers, and I don’t really have many readers anyway. But the funeral is today (I’m writing this in the morning), and I feel like I should include at least a note about it, out of respect and acknowledgement and everything else.

Miss you, Aunt Elsy.

K is for Keystone

The keystone is the stone at the apex of an arch. It’s not *reeeeally* prominent here, but you can see it if you kinda squint at the Tudor arch (Gothic arch? it’s apparently Gothic architecture) at the bottom.

(Pssst… click here for a Google street view of the building!)

According to the school’s own website, “Sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students attend Lawton C. Johnson Summit Middle School in a beautiful 1920s building that has been totally renovated with up-to-date classrooms, labs, and equipment.” The building served as Summit’s high school until 1962, and the space was periodically shared with the middle school during that time.

It gets excellent ratings on Greatschools.com.

The Summit Middle School was renamed to the Lawton C. Johnson Middle School in 2004 in honor of… Lawton C. Johnson, of course!

J is for Jack arch

Also for “jacket!” But I think that’s more of a coat. When I’m stuck for alphabet words, I can always rely on architectural terms to pull me through; the windows on the second floor exhibit jack arches. I think. I could be totally misunderstanding the jack-arch concept.

Aaanyway, this is the Summit YMCA.

And so is this! But it’s a different building.

The Summit YMCA was organized in 1886, when a group of “concerned citizens” rented a four-room apartment for two years (within which they housed young Christian men, I’m assuming). It was just a trial to see if Summit could actually use a YMCA of its own.

Apparently so! In 1888, they bought a small lot and built a small building, which was used as the first “official” Summit YMCA. It lasted until 1893.

The second YMCA (shown here) was also built especially for the cause, and it was used from 1893-1912. It was designed to house 100 members, but by 1908 it had grown to 370!

Well, they outgrew their quarters, so the third and present building, shown as the featured photo, was also custom-built, and officially opened in 1912. And it remains a center of activity today (aww).

 
 

Vintage photo and information from:

The Summit Historical Society. (1978). Glimpses into Summit’s past: A selection of photographs and texts tracing the city’s growth. Benway, Maxwell & Smith: Chatham, NJ. 65.

I is for Ice cream

When I took this photo, my hands were about to fall off from the cold, and I was unfortunately in no mood for ice cream… but Zita’s gets great reviews on Yelp.

And they had pumpkin ice cream in March! (I love pumpkin ice cream.) I need to fully check this place out when the weather gets warmer.

H is for Hibiscus syriacus cultivars

…also known as Shrub althea.

…ALSO also known as Rose-of-Sharon.

Spotted in the Reeves-Reed Arboretum.

G is for George

Here in New Providence, we like our trees so much we give them nametags. Hello George! Your bark looks lovely today.

 

…honestly, I have no idea what the real story is on this. It’s in front of the library.