St. Joseph's Catholic Church, Rawlins Wyoming

This is St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Rawlins Wyoming.  This church was completed in 1916, and is probably the most prominent building in Rawlins, even taking into account that that Rawlin's Carbon County Courthouse occupied an entire city block.  St. Joseph's is visible from nearly any location in Rawlin's.

The Church is one of the most unique Catholic Churches in Wyoming, and features a copper dome.

St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Rawlins Wyoming

This is St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Rawlins, Wyoming.  This downtown Rawlins Church appears to be of newer construction than the other downtown Rawlins Churches, but I don't know anything about it other than its downtown location.

France Memorial Presbyterian Church (Victory Baptist Church), Rawlins Wyoming

This is the France Memorial Presbyterian Church in Rawlins, which was built in downtown Rawlins in 1882. The Gothic style church is still in use, but today is a Baptist church.  The substantial stone structure is one of the oldest churches in the state.

St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, Meeteetse Wyoming

This is St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Meeteetse, Wyoming.  While you can see them in this photo, it isn't obvious that there are currently a series of jacks supporting what would be the wall on the right side of the photograph.

This is by appearances an older church, but I don't know the details on it.

St. Theresa of the Child Jesus Catholic Church, Meeteetse Wyoming

This is St. Theresa Catholic Church in Meeteetse Wyoming. The church was built in 1915 in Cody, and later moved to this location.  It is served by St. Anthony of Padua Church in Cody.

St. Joseph Catholic Church, Ft. Collins Colorado.

Lex Anteinternet: The Flying V Cambria Inn, Weston County Wyoming.

Lex Anteinternet: The Flying V Cambria Inn, Weston County Wyoming.:

This building, built as a resort in Weston County Wyoming, is included here as it has a substantial attached chapel.

The Flying V  Cambria Inn, in Weston County Wyoming, provides an interesting look into the early resort era of hotels.  Located near where the former Wyoming mining town of Cambria had been, it was built in the style of an English manor house.

 The inn was built with a chapel, the side of which you see here.

 Chapel at the Cambria Inn.

Chapel.

Stained glass windows in chapel.  The window includes variants of the State Seal in two locations.

Some sort of propeller.

Balcony in chapel.

Window dedicated to fraternal organizations.

Bar in inn.

Ballroom in inn.

Ball room in inn.

Lord of Lords Lutheran Church, Casper Wyoming.

This is, admittedly, a terrible photograph, and I took it only because I happened to be walking by and got this odd view of this particular church.  Normally, given the modern architecture, I probably would not have taken this photograph of this south Casper Lutheran Church, which is in a neighborhood which is about to overtake its previously rural setting.

The photograph really doesn't do it justice, as this is not the normal view of this church.

Church of the Ascension, Esterbrook Community Church, Esterbrook Wyoming

This church was built in 1942 as the Episcopal Church of the Ascension, serving the mountain community of Esterbrook, Wyoming.  In 2005 the Church was leased to an independent protestant congregation, which uses the church as the Esterbrook Community  Church. The church remains the property of the Episcopal Diocese of Wyoming.

Painted Bricks: MIssionary Houses, Lehaina Maui Hawaii

Painted Bricks: Missionary Houses, Lehaina Maui Hawaii: These are obviously beyond the scope of this forum, but still, this provides some interesting examples of houses for Europeans ...

Maria Lanakila Catholic Church, Lahaina Maui Hawaii

This impressive church is the Maria Lanakila Catholic Church in Lahaina Maui Hawaii.  The Church was established in 1846 with the present church having been built in 1873. Renovations were done in 1918, including the cleaning of the impressive paintings that are located within the church, gifts of Maui residents who might possibly be King Kalakaua or his sister, Queen Liliuokalani.

One of the very unusual features of this church is the chicken weather vane that is affixed atop the cross on the steeple.  I have no idea what the story behind this is.

 

 The name of the church means Mary Victorious in Hawaiian.

St. James the Less Catholic Church, Ulupalakua, Maui Hawaii

This is St. James the Less Catholic Church in Ulupalakua, Maui, Hawaii.  It's a mission church served by Our Lady Queen of Angels, which is actually fairly close to it on the same highway.  Being used to the large distances of most rural areas of the West, to find two churches of the same faith so close together is surprising, but even in such locations as Denver Colorado that still occurs, so perhaps this should not be surprising.  This church is actually older that Our Lady Queen of Angels and the original church built in this location was constructed at least as early as 1875, with missionary activity having dated back to the 1850s.  The current structure was built in 1950 and renovated in 2002.

Lahuiokalani Kaanapali Congregational Church, Kaanapali, Maui, Hawaii

This is the Lahuiokalani Kaanapali Congregational Church in Kaanapali, Maui. Located just off the beach, the church dates back to 1840, indicating early missionary activity. 

Hawai'i?

I've already heard the complaint.  Hawai'i? That's not part of the West.  I thought that this blog was about churches of the West.

Well, point well taken. We don't normally think of Hawai'i as part of the American West.  But perhaps in this context, we should.  Or at least I don't think these posts are too far afield.  Here's why.

Part of the acknowledged history of the American West is the missionary history of the West.  This occurred everywhere in North America, to be sure, but the individual Protestant and Catholic missionary activity, undertaken by the churches on their own, is a particularly strong part of western movement in North America.  And by the second half of the 1800s, it had a particular style to it, in which individual faiths endeavored to establish missions in geographic regions.

That's really what occurred, and highly successfully, in Hawai'i  The pattern of missionary activity strongly fits into the same pattern of that of the American West.  For that matter, US colonization and annexation of Haawai'i, while unique in many ways, also strongly resembles what occurred in the American West.  So, exotic Pacific locality aside, these posts are not really out of place.

Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic Church in Kula, Maui, Hawaii

This is Our Lady Queen of Angels Church in Keokea, Maui Hawaii.  This church was opened in 1940 after a need for a new Catholic Church in the area was discerned in connection with a nearby sanatorium.  As it was centrally located, and had sufficient grounds, it became the mission church for two churches in the nearby region, those being St. James the Less and the unique Portuguese styled Holy Ghost Mission.