Tom Woll Photography

A while back I had a post detailing the changing townscape of Le Mars Iowa with two very old buildings, a school and church,  being taken down and a new church going up.  You can read that post here if you are so inclined. Click For A Larger View The work is complet and the new church now stands on the site.  It is much larger structure with more parking and a modern look and feel.  Though it is modern the architecture pays tribute to the gothic style of the previous structure.  This building is orientated on the property differentially to allow for parking and to accommodate a larger building.  As modern as the main is the brick and especially steeple are a wonderful nod to the old building it replaced. On the inside some of the old pieces were used. The most obvious is the statues, woodwork and alter were refinished with care and used once again.  Re-using these items does give the feeling of bringing the old and new toget...

Sometimes it is possible to end up working on a project without realizing it.  As odd as that sounds I have been working on what has become a sort of project without knowing it. This began as a very simple request, I was asked to take a photo of an old school building before it was torn down. Click for a larger view.  You may purchase a print of this photo here. This particular building was home to St. Joseph school (and later renamed Gehlen Catholic) in my hometown of LeMars, Ia.  As the area, town and school grew additional buildings were built and eventually the original structure was no longer used or even safe to use.  On the right side of the photo you can see the original church and pastor's house.  Just a few weeks after I took this shot the building was gone.  Talk about lucky timing.  The pastors house is no longer there either.  The block looked very different to say the least. At the same time it was becoming...