Most Affecting Case Yet for Saving Church of the Assumption

With Nathaniel Popkin's historically rooted plea for the city to do something to save the Church of the Assumption, he makes a case not only for the building, but for nonprofit journalism as well. (The latter was unintended, we're sure.) Popkin describes the way the then-grim Spring Garden neighborhood—"smelting plants, coal smoke, ink black, steam explosions, homicidal train engineers, gun fights, race riots, religious wars"—was transformed by "the slim, knife-sharp towers of the Catholic Church of Assumption–a delight to the beleaguered eye and (for some) the darkened spirit of bloody Jacksonian urban America." He also recalls Mayor Nutter's inaugural question: "What kind of city do we want to be?" Looking through a long lens, Popkin has an answer.
· Find A Political Solution On Church Of The Assumption [Hidden City Daily]
· Church of the Assumption: Interior Photos and a Lament [CPHI]