Old Saint Michael's Church - Elizabeth, PA

While visiting family in Elizabeth, Pennsylvania in December 2007 and again in July 2008, I finally decided to take photos of the Catholic Church attended while I was growing up, St. Michael's. While a new church was being built in the Summer of 1987, the little church on top of the hill was condemned.   The church was shuttered, and from my understanding no one was allowed to enter the building.  That's why in the photos you will see below, much of what was in the church that fateful 1987 day is still there.  I'm very fortunate that I decided to take these photos during that eight month time period.  In 2009, the church was razed.  All of the photos are at my flickr site.

Much of what is written below - is from my original entry about the old church.

On Christmas Eve 2007, I took a drive around my hometown, it started gloomy but lo and behold the sun came out later in the afternoon that day.  Started out by going into Elizabeth, specifically to the old St. Michael's Church.  Much of the area was already covered in the dirt and grime of winter, the soot of past ice and snows, the piles of leaves from empty homes a lifeless brown.

A lot of town is empty.  The old community library is gone, and all that is left is the Red Lion, more than enough pizza shops to feed the area four times over, and not much else.   Old businesses I remember are long gone many with empty storefronts showcasing whatever dusty old leftovers were there when they closed shop.

 
I headed up Bayard St. to the old church. I was baptized here, I had my first communion here, my family worked the old fair here.  The church was condemned in 1987.   Amazingly, everything has been left in place since that day.  There are still missilettes and song books just yellowed from 20 years of age.  A lot of the old ornamental items - or at least what I could see through a few doors - were there.  In some cases, the kneelers on the pews were still down.  What's different is the plaster is starting to fall off.

Someone, perhaps the current parish staff, or a resident of the neighborhood, or perhaps someone else, had put wreathes up at the old doors to the church - and a small manger scene at the church headstone - which still listed the mass schedule from 1987.  When they razed the church in 2009, it was discovered that the headstone shown above was actually in the shape of a cross.

Our parish was founded in 1851.  I can't remember when the old church was built.  I could have sworn that there was an old corner stone showing the year of construction, but I couldn't locate it. 

Nothing says Merry Christmas, than a wreath covering up a master lock padlock and chains shutting the doors of the old church shut.  I stood in the courtyard/school playground and remembered some memories of St. Michael's when growing up.

The cold of Christmas Eve in 1983 when it was 10 below zero.  I'm pretty sure we sat up in the balcony with the choir.  Parking on the neighborhood streets to walk to mass.  The church fair which really was a town festival and was more alive than any of the others at the new church since.  The lack of A/C and Father George skipping a homily when it was too hot - or if the Steelers were playing.  People standing down the sides during the holidays or during a special mass.  The choir in the balcony above the church.

I'm not overly religious of a person, and I don't go to mass as often as I should now.  But that old church still has a special part of my growing up. My younger brother was one of the last to be baptized there in the Summer of 1987.  Not that long after, the church was condemned and we had to go to Sisters of the Divine Redeemer (a nunnery) while the new church was being completed.

The closing of the old church didn't go without a fight.  I was only 10 then and the stories about the new church being built and those wanting to stay at the old church made the local news.  Today, I wonder if it was condemned just to put an end to the squabble over it.  The new church is big and most if not all of the community has moved on from that squabble 30 years ago.  However, there is still something missing about going to church within a small community versus what pretty much amounts to an open field bordering a subdivision out in Elizabeth Township.

From afar, the condition of the church would fool you.  It looks sound from a distance.  However, as you get closer and from the little glimpses you can see through the glass doors showing the crumbing walls and the yellowed hymnals and the rotting wood fascia and soffit and door trim, it's easy to see how what was then 20 years of neglect can wear down a once elegant yet simple church.

The saddest sight was the statue of St. Michael that stood above the entrance to the church.  An item which many hoped would have moved to the new church had started to deteriorate and fall apart.  I don't believe it was salvaged when the church was torn down.

In the years since I originally posted this story, a comment was made that in spite of all the random vandalism that can take in a small town like Elizabeth that for the 20 plus years that the church was still standing not one act was ever done to the church.

In the Summer of 2008, I again was home visiting and made another visit to the church.  A neighbor of the church was kind enough to direct me to an operating pane of a stained glass window that allowed me to look inside.  What I was able to see, specifically the beauty of the stained glass windows is something I am very thankful to have one last glimpse of.  Even the large fans - which were always running during the hot summer months - were still there.

The church was razed in 2009, but not before parishioners could have one final look at the building. My parents purchased one of the old pews from the church as a donation and it sits in their home today.

I was married in October 2011 in what is my new home of Raleigh, North Carolina. The church we were married Fairmont United Methodist Church reminded me a lot of my old church.  Though in a much larger town than Elizabeth, it is within a neighborhood where sometimes you had to park on the street and walk to get there.  It has the steps to the entrance and even has the upstairs balcony.  It's funny how on some of your most special days a small piece of home can find you.