Photographs and thoughts on photography and camera collecting
This path is directly across Revolutionary Road from the Scarborough Presbyterian Church Manse. I’ve no idea where it leads to (some grand house I imagine). I liked the stone pillars, the wrought iron gate and the way the path just leads away…to nothing. I’ve taken pictures of it before. In spring bright yellow daffodils grow alongside the path.
Taken with a Sony DSC-H50
“The Church House, given by Mrs. Edith Shepard and designed by Augustus D. Shepard, was completed in 1908.” (Mary Cheever. The Changing Landscape. A History of Briarcliff Manor-Scarborough, p.53
Taken with a Sony DSC-H50
According to Wikipedia:
Scarborough Presbyterian Church is the third-oldest in Briarcliff Manor., and has a 2.75-acre (1.11 ha) property. The church has its origins with Elliott Fitch Shepard and his wife Margaret Louisa Vanderbilt Shepard purchasing a roadhouse on the Albany Post Road. In 1892, after enlarging and remodeling the store, adding diamond-paned windows and replacing the floors and porches, the building was first used as a church. The church’s organization meeting was held with nineteen charter members.
After Elliott Fitch Shepard’s death in March 1893, Margaret donated the present church building and manse. The Spanish Renaissance-style church was designed by Augustus Haydel (a nephew of Stanford White) and August D. Shepard (a nephew of Elliott Shepard and of William Rutherford Mead. The two nephews later designed the 1899 Fabbri Mansion in Manhattan. The church’s cornerstone was laid on October 13, 1893. During construction of the building’s foundation, workers found quicksand, though Shepard was intent on constructing the church there and had the construction workers dig 30 feet into the ground to find firm ground for the foundation. European workers were brought to the site to aide in the building’s construction. The Italian Renaissance Revival building was of limestone delivered from Indiana by railroad, requiring a special track laid at Scarborough to accommodate the delivery. The completed church was dedicated on May 11, 1895, in memory of Elliott Fitch Shepard. It was briefly known as Shepard Memorial Church. The dedication was attended by Cornelius Vanderbilt II, Frederick W. Vanderbilt, Chauncey Depew, William Sloane of W. & J. Sloane, William Seward Webb, H. Walter Webb, and James A. Burden Jr.
It was built of pink granite rubble with limestone trim, with a steeple supported by flying buttresses. The interior has mosaic tile floors, fluted pilasters with gilded capitals, a coffered ceiling made of redwood, and stained-glass windows. The church’s 1,498-pipe organ was constructed around 1894; it was the first all-electric action organ in the world. The 3-acre (1.2 ha) church property also contains the church’s carriage house, used for offices, and the parish house, designed by Augustus D. Shepard and completed in 1908.
From 1929 to 1974, the Scarborough Engine Company of the Briarcliff Manor Fire Department had its first firehouse in the church’s garage building or barn, which is older than the church building itself.
Since around 1995, the church has run the Scarborough Presbyterian Children’s Center, a non-denominational preschool housed in a building next door to the church, with an outdoor playground nearby. The preschool serves families in Briarcliff Manor and Scarborough, Ossining, Tarrytown, Sleepy Hollow, Pocantico Hills, and Pleasantville.
In 1995, some of the church was renovated; in 2002, the building was more fully renovated due to years of floodwater and runoff damage, including floods from Hurricane Floyd.
Taken with a Sony DSC-H50
The Holy Spirit Church in Ossining describes itself on its Facebook Page as: ” a non-denominational Christian church dedicated to meeting the needs of people for life and Godliness.”. So far I haven’t been able to find out anything about its history.
Taken with a Panasonic GX85 and Panasonic Lumix G Vario 14-42 f3.5-4.6 II.
Of course, after I got my hands the Polaroid SX-70 mentioned in the previous post I rushed out immediately, eager to try it out – right? Actually, that was not the case. I think that I acquired the camera and film in 2022. When I opened the film package today, I noticed that the film was made in 2021, which of course makes it three years old. Polaroid warns that you should not use film more than one year old, which may have been a contributing factor to what happened today.
So how did things go? Well, I put the film in the camera and the dark slide popped out as it should. So far so good. I left the house and walked down towards the Hudson River. On the way I spotted something that I thought would make an interesting picture. I carefully focused, framed the picture and pressed the shutter release. The camera whirred but no picture was ejected. After tugging for a while, I managed to get it out. Of course, the picture was blank. I continued walking and took another picture with the same results. The third picture at least ejected from the camera without any assistance with me, but it looked as if it had been taken with a 150-year-old camera rather than 52-year-old camera that it is. I continued walking and taking pictures and they all ejected and were all pretty much of the same quality. When I got to the last two pictures, I pressed the shutter release…and nothing happened. Frustrating, but then I remembered that while the old Polaroid film allowed 10 exposures, the modern variant only allows eight. I imagine that the first two exposures did not register on the frame counter, which showed that there were two left when in fact there the film pack was finished. When I got home, I couldn’t get the film pack out of the camera, but after some YouTube browsing I managed to figure out how to remove it and also how to clean the rollers (which now had some bluish grey gunk on them, probably from my efforts to remove the film from the camera when it wouldn’t eject by itself).
I don’t consider today’s efforts a total disaster though (although I might have done if I hadn’t gotten any pictures at all). I was bit disappointed with the results, but not at all surprised. It’s an old camera that’s been sitting around for a while. The film was beyond its sell by date. Clearly the camera is not working properly, but all things considered I quite liked the results. They have a certain vintage look that has a charm of its own.
I also wanted to see whether or not I’d like the instant camera experience. I was surprised to find that I did, and I intend to continue. I might see if I can get the camera repaired. I browsed around for a while and discovered that a lot of people had good things to say about Brooklyn Film Camera. I live close to NY City, so I’ll probably give them a call, and if possible, take it in for them to have a look. If they can fix it for a reasonable cost I’ll probably do it. If not I might consider getting another one that they already renovated. It’s such a beautiful camera that I wouldn’t at all mind putting it out for display.
All things considered it was an enjoyable experience.
Taken with a Polaroid SX-70. Pictures messed with in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom