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This is From the Archives, where we present something from our extensive collection of archival photos, records and all manner of materials dating back to when the church was First Methodist Episcopal, to First Methodist, to Church of the Savior, to St. Paul's to Crossroads.
This week's archives items give us three snapshots in the life of this church from very different times; different from each other, and different from today - though actually, not so different at all.
The first image belonged to a gentleman named Karl Harsh, and was first seen at the Canton Classic Car Museum before this photocopy of it made its way to our church archives sometime in 1997. Mr Harsh's caption of the photo states that this is William McKinley's funeral procession on September 19, 1901.
Much is written about William McKinley's funeral in our archives, but this is indeed a very rare picture taken as that funeral was actually happening. So far, your newsletter editor has not come across any other such photos in our archives, though perhaps there are still more to be found (there are pictures of the decorated sanctuary taken either before or after the service).
There is a significant amount of something we might call schmutz streaking right through the middle of the photo, but as this is a scan of a photocopy of a print, we can be glad to be able to cleanly make out lush trees, horses, cannons and of course bystanders all looking at this historic event happening in front of them on this local, tree-lined road in Canton, Ohio (known then as Poplar, not Cleveland Avenue).
Also, it's too bad we don't have these beautiful trees on our street anymore.
The second image has no date, but given the cars, it is obviously sometime in the 1920s or 1930s. This is Ohio, so there is snow present (see especially the snow-covered roof), yet there are lots of people milling around and going about their business despite the cold.
In this picture and the one from 1901, the smaller steeple in the rear of our church building is still there. This second tower was removed at some point for unknown reasons, as you'll see in the last picture.
And then the last picture is labeled only as being from sometime in 1959. Cleveland Avenue is even more bustling with cars and people than it was in the 1920s/30s picture, and this is the clearest and cleanest photo your newsletter editor has seen so far of the stores that were located in what has been known mostly as the education wing (replacing the Pastor's residence that used to be there, which can just barely be seen in the second photo).
The stores were (from left to right), Green's music store, Geiger insurance agency (an agency which still exists today in multiple states), an unknown store (no sign visible in the photo) and finally DG Grigsby jewelery on the corner with their own corner sign.
This photo gives a great view of this side of the building on Cleveland Ave (formerly Poplar) without any obstruction, so at some point the building that was across the street (just barely visible in the second picture) was taken down, but the parking deck which we still use today was not yet built.
All three of these photos capture this one side of our building at three different points in the city's and the church's history. Were we to include a modern picture of Cleveland Avenue with them, we would see much the same things - pedestrians, cars, businesses and of course, our church building, still there, still a fixture on our corner.
These pictures also show the darker color of the stone of our building, which was made even darker by the accumulation of dirt since its construction in 1883. In the coming weeks, you'll see some amazing and rare color pictures of the difference bewteen this older, darker and dirtier stone and the lighter color of the building we know today. Stay tuned for those!
(Click to open the images in new windows.)
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