A Smattering of Giles Gilbert Scott

Giles Gilbert Scott was a British architect of the first half of the 20th Century who was well known throughout the country for many of his designs. His most famous architectural commission was the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, but he is probably best known as the designer of the iconic red London telephone booths. Apart from these well-known and well-loved designs, he was a prolific designer of smaller churches throughout the United Kingdom. Here are a few photos that describe his Mid-Century Gothic mastery. He successfully blended modern and traditional in a pleasing way, making him a good model as we go forward in uncertain economic times.

Ampleforth Abbey, Yorkshire, England

Ampleforth Abbey, Yorkshire, England

Ampleforth Abbey, Yorkshire, England

St Columba's Cathedral, Oban, Scotland

Carmelite Church, Kensington, London

Carmelite Church, Kensington, London

ANZAC Day

On April 25, 1915, Allied forces landed on the Gallipoli peninsula during an assault on the Ottoman Empire. Both the Turks and the Allies sustained heavy losses, though the Turks were eventually victorious, laying waste to the Allied strategy of quickly overthrowing the Ottoman Empire. The armed forces of Australia and New Zealand (referred to as the ANZACs), fighting with their British brethren, sustained very heavy casualties in the midst of the fighting. The Gallipoli campaign was a defining moment for the young nations, and one that lead to an increased sense of self-direction at the conclusion of the war. Prior to WWI, Australia and New Zealand (and Canada) were still very important parts of the British Empire. The ANZACs answered the call "to defend King and country", though the King and the country were both 11,000 miles away. Thus, seeing all of the sons of Australia and New Zealand being slaughtered by the Turks in a war that had little to do with Australia or New Zealand, shaped public opinion in those countries for years to come.

The commemoration of ANZAC Day is far more somber than our equivalent Veteran's Day, which tends to take on a bit more nationalistic fervor. Since ANZAC Day recalls a defeat - and a gruesome defeat at that - the national observance tends toward more solemnity and reflection on the terrible fruits of war. The song "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda," written by Eric Bogle in 1971, captures well the mood of ANZAC Day and the events it remembers. Here is a version of the song performed by The Dubliners:

 

Australian Skies

Australia has some of the most amazing skies in the whole world. I'm not sure if it's just the proximity of the ocean that makes the atmosphere delightful, but my semester in Lennox Head was graced by many fine skies both day and night. I came up with this photo today, which is an amalgamation of five separate photos of Lennox Head and Seven Mile Beach. From left to right we progress from dawn, to sunrise, to midday, to sunset, and finally to an evening thunderstorm.

Waterfalls of Stone

 There are two approaches to Yellowstone National Park from the northeast. The blue ribbon route is the dramatic Beartooth Highway, which makes a precipitous climb through the valley of Rock Creek and snakes its way up and over the Absaroka Mountains via the Beartooth Pass. The lesser-traveled route follows the Chief Joseph Highway on a mellower course through Dead Indian Pass and more gentle valleys. This route is not devoid of its drama, however. One of the most spectacular moments comes when the road crosses Clark's Fork Canyon, a chasm of sheer granite. It is worth the stop. This is a photo of mine when I passed that way in the summer of 2008.

Wandering Fremantle

If you begin in Perth, the capital and largest city of the remote state of Western Australia, and head southwest by automobile or train, you will end up in the agreeable town of Fremantle. Positioned at the mouth of the Swan River, Fremantle reached its zenith in the gold rush days of the late Nineteenth Century, when it was the preeminent port city of Western Australia. Nowadays, it is a haven for wealthy Perthites looking to move closer to the beach as well as a younger, backpacking clientele from around the world looking for a sunny holiday location. Fremantle is among my very favorite places in Australia. Through the wonder of Google Maps and my own photography, we are able to stroll through Fremantle and enjoy this gem of the West.

We'll begin at Number 23, Swanbourne Street, our residence during our time in Fremantle. It sits on the heights to the east of the city, and had wonderful sunset views out over the Indian Ocean from the back porch.

Walk about twenty-five yards down Swanbourne Street, hang a left on Fothergill Street, and this is the view that greets you. It is a quiet, leafy residential neighborhood. Gardens full of fragrant flowers and trees spill over brick walls onto the sidewalks. The view of the azure Indian Ocean perfectly completes the horizon.

After a bit of maneuvering at the bottom of Fothergill Street, you will find yourself at the main square, dominated by the splendid Victorian era City Hall.

On the other side of the square is St. John's Anglican Church. It is a sturdy Gothic Revival structure with a nice cool interior.

Heading southwest from the town square down High Street, you will notice a bustling streetscape dominated by some fantastically preserved buildings from two centuries ago. High Street terminates at the old jail - the oldest structure extant in Fremantle.

The built heritage of Fremantle is nothing to scoff at. The streets are a pleasure to wander down. It rather reminds me of Charleston, for those who are familiar.

High Street ends at a tunnel underneath the Old Jail that leads to the beach.

Nearby is the old Technical College - a handsome Gothic building exhibiting the red and cream color scheme common to Western Australia.

The local Uniting Church is another example of colonial Gothic. I rather like the way this church sits on the corner in a picturesque way.

These rowhouses along a side street exhibit several means of shading. The sun is extreme everywhere in Australia, but since Western Australia enjoys a drier climate, it is much more severe.

When your day in Fremantle is done, return to Number 23, Swanbourne Street, and enjoy dinner on the verandah as the sun sets. 

Of Slovakia

I wrote a lengthy post the other day about some of my French Canadian and English Puritan ancestors and some of the intriguing portions of their lives. In fairness to my father's side of the family, I thought I'd post a little bit about my grandmother's Slovak roots. My grandmother's parents immigrated to these United States from the small village of Jakubany in eastern Slovakia (at that time a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire). The village itself is nestled in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains in a region historically contested among the Austrian, Prussian, and Russian forces.

Seems like a rather idyllic place to me. We have records of my grandmother's family living in this same village since the late 1600s. An interesting note is that they were all Greek Catholics - Christians whose liturgy reflects Eastern Orthodox traditions but who are in communion with the Pope. The only church in town (pictured above) is Sts. Peter and Paul Slovak Greek Catholic Church.

This is the interior of the church. Note the Eastern influences including the iconostasis (icon screen), and the rich iconography. My grandma's parents left Jakubany in 1913 and moved to Windber, Pennsylvania. My great-grandfather mined coal and my great-grandmother raised twelve children. When my great-grandfather died of the black lung, the family moved to Detroit, where some of the elder sons had already found jobs at Ford. When my grandma married my grandpa, she stopped attending Greek Catholic services in favor of his Roman Rite tradition.

Puritan Connections

Though I am at most a fourth generation American citizen, my family's history on the North American continent goes back much further - some 400 or so years - via the French presence in the province of Quebec. The settlers of Nouvelle France were a "priest-ridden people", which has ensured that copious parish records have survived through the ages. Hence, that portion of my family is rather well documented all the way back to those intrepid souls who left the fishing villages of Normandy in the early 1600s. There is, however, an interesting hiccup in this rather uniform narrative of French ancestry. It turns out I have one or two Puritans lurking in the family tree. The tale of John and Hannah Swarton is the bizarrely intriguing link between Puritan New England and French Montreal.

John Swarton hailed from Jersey, one of the Channel Islands - British territories that lie off the northern coast of France. In the chaos of the English Civil War, King Charles II fled Britain for the continent, perhaps stopping off at Jersey along the way. In any event, John Swarton joined the military forces of Charles II in Flanders (modern day Belgium) and was a part of the army that helped restore Charles to the throne in 1660. The historical record is relatively silent until 1687 when John Swarton was awarded a grant of fifty acres in North Yarmouth in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (North Yarmouth is now a suburb of Portland, Maine).

Swarton had married a certain Hannah Hibbard in Beverly, Massachusetts on January 6, 1671, meaning he must have emigrated from England rather soon after Charles' restoration (most likely during the reign of the Catholic King James II before the Protestant resurgence of power under William and Mary during the Glorious Revolution in 1688). Hannah Hibbard was the daughter of Robert Hibbard, a weaver's apprentice from Salisbury, England, who had settled in Salem, Massachusetts, sometime before 1640. The Hibbards were an interesting family in their own right since they were distantly descended from King Edward I through the Earls of Devon - but that is a story for another time.

John Swarton and Hannah Hibbard were living in North Yarmouth during a tumultuous period of colonial history known as King William's War (the colonial outgrowth of Continental European wars spawned by the Glorious Revolution and the accession of William and Mary to the English throne). The French and their Native American allies were eager to stop English encroachment symbolized by the new settlements around Fort Loyal (the site of modern-day Portland). The French mounted a raid on those settlements in 1689, which was repelled by forces under Major Benjamin Church. The next May, the French returned and captured the settlements and killed many of the settlers - including John Swarton. The rest were taken as prisoners and hauled off to Quebec.

Hannah Swarton was, by all accounts, a very pious Puritan woman. She kept a journal of her captivity that was published in 1697 as an appendix to a book by prominent Puritan minister Cotton Mather entitled "Humiliations Followed With Deliverances". Hannah and her three surviving children, Mary, Samuel, and Jasper, were pressured to convert to Catholicism while captives in Quebec. Hannah Swarton described the ordeal thusly: "The lady, my mistress, the nuns, the priests, the friars and the rest set upon me. . . to perswade me to turn Papist." She remained steadfast and was eventually allowed to return to Massachusetts Bay, though her children did not accompany her.

Her daughter, Mary Swarton, stayed in Quebec and eventually married John Lahaye, an Irishman from Tullow. He was raised Catholic, despite having a Protestant mother, but he later strayed into Puritanism before finally being readmitted to the Catholic Church prior to his marriage:

"On Monday, 19 March 1696, Jean Lahe born in 1670 at Tollo in Ireland of the marriage of Thomas Lahé, Catholic, and of Catharine Williams, Protestant, and baptized in his country in the Catholic religion & later having professed the Puritan religion until last year, when he was taken in the month of July among the Flemish of Corlar and living now in the service of M. le Ber, Merchant, solemnly made abjuration of heresy [renounced heretical ideas - i.e. Puritanism] into the hands of Mre. Henri Antoine Meriel, Priest of the Seminary of Ville Marie, authorized to receive it by M. François Dolie priest, Grand Vicaire etc. And this in the presence of M. Yves Priat, priest of said Seminary of Ville Marie [Montreal] and of several others." (Signed by all herein named.)

The pair were married in Montreal on the 9th of Septermber, 1697, and eventually had eleven children (two of which I directly descend from - yes, that means that distant cousins married at some point along the way - it happens).

An interesting anecdote regarding Mr. Lahaye regards him and another English captive attempting to counterfeit money. The charge was sent in a letter to King Louis XIV, who dropped all charges because of the "great service he has already rendered to the colony" and because the bills "were so badly made, no one could've been deceived."

 *     *     *

I'm unsure whether this story has a moral or not, but it is always interesting to look back at the unfathomably large tapestry of consequences woven by our actions. We cannot see all the ends of our decisions. If one little circumstance of these events had been slightly different, I would not be here as I am today. A tiny genetic part of me comes from Mary Swarton and John Lahaye. I would not have that part if Yarmouth had never been attacked, or had the Swartons all been killed instead of captured, or had John Swarton never bothered to leave the Isle of Jersey with Charles II. That's the fascinating thing about history and about genealogy in particular - you are looking at the story of yourself.


Source: New England Captives Carried to Canada between 1677-1760 During the French and Indian Wars by Emma Lewis Coleman

The Amsterdam Stock Exchange Competition

The Amsterdam Stock Exchange by the famed Dutch architect Hendrik Petrus Berlage is a fine structure. The imaginative use of brickwork and steel in the main hall displays a mastery of color and material.

However, the exterior as executed by Berlage leaves a bit to be desired. It is a bit too severe for a city that has such a fine heritage of building in brick.

I, for one, much prefer the design put forth by Berlage in conjunction with his partner, Theodorus Sanders.

This design by Johann Frederik Lodewijk Frowein isn't bad either.

Nor is this one by Ludwig Klingenberg and Ernst Tauschenberg.