We will have more on the history of St. Boniface, and the Norris Square Civic Association’s plans for developing the site into townhouses later in the week. For now, here’s a look at what will be lost.
The Philadelphia Church Project, a wonderful and idiosyncratic exploration of our city’s sacred buildings also has some great pictures of the interior. See them HERE.
Such a beautiful church. I went to St. Boniface School and spent many Friday’s and Sunday’s at Mass there. Baptisms, weddings, funerals, May Processions, graduations, First Holy Communion & Confirmations..it is a sad day that this church that stood for so many years is now going to be no more. It is sad that there wasn’t anything they could do to save it. Memories are all we will have now.
As a grand ecclesiastical structure overlooking a great public square, St. Boniface has a significant positive influence on the public realm. By its presence and grand historical architecture, it connects us to our past and makes the experience of being in the square more spiritual and memorable. The flimsy townhouses that will take its place will have no such influence on the public space that they will occupy. It is another bone-headed move by the local civic association, which has deep pockets and controls a lot of real estate in the area, much to its detriment. It is a sad day for the neighborhood, and Norris Square will be the poorer for this loss.
What a beautiful collection of shapes and lines combined to create this wonderful structure! My daughter and I reflected for a moment on how many people of all shapes and sizes and ages and full of their own stories and past histories walked, sat, knelled, thought , and prayed in that amazing building, I could smell a moldy incense and the see the light light amber from candles…
Sad tale, but wonderful photographs. Amazing forms, lines and color.
Those are my shots on the Philadelphia Church Project site. Though my photos don’t even do justice to the beauty it has, even now, it was so apparent when I was in there that it was once so much more beautiful.
The diocese looted it for all it was worth after it closed, and they are the ones responsible for the closure. Unlike most it did not close because of declining parish population, it closed because they failed to maintained the building to the point it was a hazzard.