A touch of melancholy.

Yesterday was mild but somewhat grey and gloomy – exactly the kind of day to feed my fascination with old, abandoned buildings.

 

In the Doon region of Kitchener, I came across tiny Wesleyan Methodist Church, built in 1868, on a dead-end street near the Grand River.

Church doors are often beautiful – even simple, modest ones have an element of grace. If I’m to assume there was once an air of welcome here, it’s been wiped out by neglect, the passage of time, and the bar currently bolted across the entrance.

 

I read a little about the building here and here. In 1925, it became a United Church, but regular services were no longer offered after 1960.

Apparently the building was sold in 1984, but my brief online search didn’t turn up the identity of the current owner. The structure still stands, but sadly, it’s deteriorating.

 

Real human beings – ones we’ll never know – laboured to raise this building. They used their hands to lay these bricks and paint these walls.

How quickly our constructs fade and crumble when, for one reason or another, we no longer maintain them.

 

Thanks for stopping by. Check out all the doors (likely more cheerful than this one) shared by this week’s contributors over at Norm 2.o.