Art Inspired Church, Linville, NC

My friend LL from NC and I were headed from Linville Gorge to Damascus, VA and we decided to check out this uniquely built church in Linville, NC.

This was no ordinary church as it was built by a famous designer out of Chestnut.  It is also no ordinary photo.  After I took the picture with the rising, morning sun through the belfrie LL noticed the orb in the photo.

The following description is from: https://www.ecva.org/exhibition/acs/linville_1.html

“In the late 1880’s the town of Linville was created in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina as a resort. Several of the original buildings were designed by architect Henry Bacon, the designer of the Lincoln Memorial, and constructed of American chestnut in a simple style of natural, native materials. The last structure to be built of Bacon’s design was All Saints Episcopal Church.

Commissioned in 1910, the church was completed in 1913. It is basically a log structure laid out as a Roman cross. The roof beams of the open ceiling, the rood screen, and the altar rails are of unstripped logs and branches. The walls were covered inside and out with chestnut bark shingles. The style of All Saints Church and the other buildings by Henry Bacon became known as the "Linville Style" and is typical of the architecture in the area.”

It was built before Chestnut Blight.  

Description

“The pathogenic fungus Cryphonectria parasitica is a member of the Ascomycota taxon. It is native to South East Asia and was introduced into Europe and North America in the 1900s. The fungus spread rapidly and caused significant tree loss in both regions.” Wikipedia

Not stated here by Wikipedia is that; We have lost most of our North American Chestnut population and it is figured that we will have no more Chestnut at some point in our future.

The story about Chestnut Blight has been in the news lately.  After visiting this church there was a NPR podcast on “How GMOs Might Save The American Chestnut”

You can listen to this podcast in the following link.

https://www.wbur.org/npr/718391784/gmos-genetics-ethics-chestnut-tree

This proposal to save the American Chestnut doesn’t come without some controversy.  Researchers supported by Monsanto have been able to genetically alter the tree species to resist the blight.

Now the question is is this the right thing to do?  You decide after listening to the podcast.

From the picture above you can see the chestnut tree bark pieces for the siding.

The door has a wonderful ornate piece of hand-forged hinges.

Stained glass at the east end shines bright colors during morning services.

I’m able to get a picture of the front without the sun in the picture.

It’s things like this little church made from American Chestnut, over 100 years ago, gives beauty from choice of material and of simple design intrigue me and makes the suggestion by LL to stop to visit more than just seeing a church.

Little did we know at the time of our visit that a controversy about the future of our native Chestnut Trees was brewing.

I have to say that we all face so many issues about our environment.  Animals and plants brought between continents have created many problems.  In MA where I live, indigenous plants are being crowed out by invasive species.  We are using up natural resources faster than ever.  Pollution is ever growing and impacting us in many ways.  The ice caps are melting faster than ever. Recycling is not what it should be.  New UN report “One million species at risk of extinction, UN report warns” is the title by National Geographic https://www.google.com/amp/s/relay.nationalgeographic.com/proxy/distribution/public/amp/environment/2019/05/ipbes-un-biodiversity-report-warns-one-million-species-at-risk

We need to look for solutions and GMO of the Chestnut Tree is one attempt to solve the loss of one species.  I listened to the arguments on both sides of the issue on the podcast.  I don’t know the right answer but I do know we need to doing something to save our world for future generations.

Who would have thought that stopping at an Art inspired church would have yielded such a blog.  As you can tell I listen to a lot of podcasts.

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com