Louis QTHE LITTLE STONE CHAPEL ON THE LAKE
RUST ~ STONE ~ BONES
Lawrence Chapel
THE LITTLE STONE CHURCH BY THE LAKE
On a gloomy and overcast Sunday in August 2021, I decided to get up early and head out with my new camera to visit my favorite abandoned junkyard in upstate New York that I had explored many times in the past. I was hoping to run in to Joe, the owner of this very eclectic automobile junkyard that serves as the final resting place for many classic cars and trucks from the 1930’s to the early 1980’s and talk to him about a 1930’s Hudson Teraplane I’ve had my eye on since I first met Joe. I had last visited this amazing graveyard of rust in about 2015 or 2016 with my good friend A.D. after we met the owner several years earlier. A.D. and I quickly developed a nice acquaintanceship with Joe after our first encounter around 2013 and had been invited to come up and visit anytime. Unfortunately, A.D. moved away, life got busy and I have not had the opportunity to visit Joe in the last 5 years. When I arrived it looked like nobody has set foot on the grounds since last time I was there. Joe was nowhere to be found and the buildings looked abandoned. I was able to grab a couple shots of a few cars closer to the road, those not buried in a sea of overgrown weeds. I did try to make my way through the overgrown jungle in search of rusty gold thinking to myself this is what it must have been like for the first explorers cutting their way through the Amazon jungle to find the hidden Mayan temples. It was too much and most of the cars were literally buried in the bush. I decided to leave after calling Joe and leaving a message to express my interest in the Teraplane when I came upon a woman walking her dog down the quiet road. She affirmed, to my ease, Joe was still going strong and usually stops by to check on his property daily. This was good to hear as I may head up again soon and have a cold Old Milwaukee with Joe and talk cars, cameras and Hudsons !!
After grabbing a handful of cool shots of some vintage Hudsons and Nashes that were graciously revealing themselves through the tall weeds, I decided to head for home. I had left Joe a message and decided to try to come back up in a few weeks or this fall. Plus, the storm clouds were steadily moving in and the thunder was beginning to rumble around me. As the sky grew increasingly dark and ominous in my rear view mirror I began thinking of a shoot I have coming up next weekend that would make up for this weekends missed opportunity. An abandoned prison/sanitarium shoot. I was thinking I need to get back into exploring and add some new prints to my RUINSCAPES abandoned fine art gallery as I was driving down route 228 out of Trumansburg when something to my left caught my eye. I turned around and there it was. An old cool stone church sitting stoically and unassuming up on a small hill. I was like, YES!! This is cool, as the rain started to sprinkle around me. I grabbed a plastic bag, my tripod and new Canon R6 and decided there was still something to explore this day. I grabbed a couple shots from the bottom of the stone steps with the old wrought iron gate welcoming me. It reminded me of the Orthodox Church on the hill in Centralia, PA.
I was able to stroll around the grounds where this quaint little stone church was erected in 1880. Around the perimeter of the property there is a hand laid stone wall similar to a wall surrounding a castle that encompasses an old cemetery, small grove of trees including large pines, oaks and hemlocks. I learned the family cemetery preceded the chapel, which was erected as a lasting memorial to the Lawrence family who had purchased property on Cayuta Lake and surrounding areas following the revolutionary war. After returning home and processing the handful of photos I took, I began to research the chapel and cemetery. There is not much that I could find except for a couple articles shared below. Please refer to links at end of this blog to view the history of this chapel and the Lawrence family. As I meandered through the small cemetery, I felt a sense of calm. It smelled of light summer rain, woods and the ground was soft and plush feeling like I was walking on cotton. I did not spend a lot of time in the cemetery which is to the right of the chapel on a small mossy knoll. I am as always, intrigued by the headstones and monuments of old.
Walking around the perimeter of this 1800’s property from the old cemetery, around the chapel and to the other side where there is another peaceful fully shaded grove of trees, moss and ground ivy, I continued to feel a sense of calmness and began to reflect on life for a short 30 minutes. How the most astute and prominent men are long forgotten and that how nearly 150 plus years the people who laid just six feet below my feet once had lives, family, fun on the lake, enjoyed fine food and conversation, owning material things, their thoughts and feelings, experienced love and regret and so on. Now….here they lie. I reflected on this. That despite my successes or failures personally or professionally, the things I acquire including my house, car, cameras, guitars, etc. My personal relationships, family, love may not matter as much as I think they will. My life will be gone, my things will be gone, someone else will live on the property I now call my own in 50-100-200 years from now. SO, I think, how can I make the most of today, what can I leave behind that is considered important ? Journal, writing, photographs, art ? Maybe good values, ideas, thoughts and morals ? Will I leave any sort of legacy ?I thank God for the gift of creativity that I can share with others and hope that something I created survives as long as this beautiful chapel has or even longer. I challenge everyone who reads this to start a diary or journal for future generations. The past and history is such an important thing.
“Not to know what has been transacted in former times is to be always a child. If no use is made of the labors of the past ages, the world must remain always in the infancy of knowledge” ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero
Stay tuned for my upcoming review blog of the former SCI Cresson Prison and TB Sanitarium I will be documenting and photographing soon. Please check out the history of The Lawrence Chapel and Lawrence family at the following links. The articles originally submitted by Jeanne Bleiler and Schuyler County Historical Society.
