A Nighttime view of St. Paul's church, its wrought iron, and Tiffany windows

A few days ago, my mom and I visited St. Paul's Episcopal church to see a concert. As it turned out, I think the photos I took of the church will be of interest to some of you. I know like me, some of you are into old architecture and wrought iron. If you're into stained glass, you'll also want to stick around!

I just noticed that cool sunrise pattern above the door.

I'm adding some intentionally spooky night shots of the church, because of the theme of my blog, but it was a light and airy place inside.

There is something mysterious about the outside of churches at night. Especially those that have this castle or fortress look.

A close-up of one of the windows:

If you look closely at this window, you'll see some leaf designs that look almost drawn over the glass. I wonder how that's done?

I love the ironwork on the doors.

Speaking of ironwork, check out this dramatic gate:

St. Paul's has actual Tiffany windows and they were glowing.

I couldn't see much of them from inside the church, but they were beautiful from outside. This looks more like a watercolor painting than typical stained glass.

This is one I'd like to see from inside the church, to see the details on the angel's face. 

 

I'm not sure if this one is a Tiffany. There's something different about it with the very vibrant colors.

I'm looking at these photos and thinking about how clean the windows have been kept. Sometimes you see stained glass that's become dark with time. I'm so happy with the clarity of these photos, considering this is old stained glass and I was photographing it at night.

I just read that St. Paul's has the largest collection of Tiffany stained glass windows in the state.

So, into the church. Something that struck me right away were the many different design styles. The first thing you notice as you go in is the giant pipe organ.

 

Maybe some day we'll hear that organ. Having heard a large pipe organ in another old church, I can tell you it's a pretty powerful experience!

Also near the front of the church was this giant gold eagle, uplit in blue. Blue, pink, purple, and green lights were cast on different parts of the church.

There was a pretty purple light cast up on this column. My guess is those are lilies carved into it. A man standing near one of the columns was uplit in a bright pink light, although I don't think he realized it. He looked like someone with a flashlight under his chin, about to tell a campfire story.

Now you're going to see what I mean about different design styles in this church. I see the top of this column as Art Deco, but maybe someone was really ahead of their time?

St. Paul's was built in 1884. These columns look way more modern than that, don't they?

Here's what's mystifying me, I don't know how it's possible for columns to be added to a church at a later date. If the columns are helping to support the ceiling/roof, you'd think they couldn't be removed and replaced. Unless some sort of supports were put up in place of the columns while they were being replaced? Any architects out there who could answer that for me?

Speaking of the ceiling, here's what we saw looking up:

Little cherubs were carved into the wood above. So as you look up, they're looking back down at you.

I love this camera's zoom lens! I also love wrought iron, as you've probably figured out. This detailed floral design piece was in the church:

I searched for a video of the church, hoping to find one with the organ playing. I was pleased to find this one. You'll be able to hear the organ and see what these stained glass windows look like in the daylight. I was surprised to see some gargoyles that must have been looking over us in the dark without my knowledge.

It's something to see old photos of people standing in front of what was an empty door the other night. You'll recognize that door from the first photo in this blog post.

If you're curious about the music we heard, here's a brief program: An evening of music for guitar and strings, featuring the spectacular René Izquierdo and members of the Milwaukee Symphony

I wanted to share some of what we heard but that's not possible, because this was the first time the violinist and guitarist performed together. So there's no video of them collaborating. None that I could find, anyway.

But, I can share a sampling of their talent by linking to their separate YouTube channels.

Violin: Frank Almond

Guitar: René Izquierdo 

 

Also, I want to invite you all to participate in a Christmas crazy/ugly sweater blog party I'm going to have! Wacky Christmas themed hats work too. Just any fun outfit you want to put together.

If you already have a pic of yourself in a wild Christmas outfit, send me an email. Or have fun crafting something new. That's what I'll be doing. I went to an ugly Christmas sweater party once, but I don't think I looked quite creative enough. So we'll see what I put together here...

 

This is happening in place of the annual Halloween blog party, which I ran short of time for this year. But there's plenty of time now, and I'll set a date and stick to it. My Christmas blog party will be on Saturday, December 10. That should give us enough to time to assemble some outfits and enjoy seeing them before Christmas!