S.O.-Vailsburg Methodist

It's "Church Day" again here at Newark USA. Today, I have 9 pix of the South Orange-Vailsburg United Methodist Church. Altho it includes in its name the word "Vailsburg", which is the westernmost part of Newark (where I live), the church is actually located in the Village of South Orange, one mile from the city line. (150 South Orange Avenue, South Orange, NJ 07079-2219; (973) 763-0655.) South Orange, which I might call "Newark Lite", is not a "lily white" suburb, but over 30% black. It is the site of the main campus of Seton Hall University. Seton Hall's Law School is in Newark, and its men's basketball team plays in Newark's Prudential Center. New Jersey is now trying to lower costs of local government, and merging South Orange into Newark would be one good way to do that.

I have passed by this church many, many times but on the occasions when I might have stopped to take pix, the liting was bad, until today. I was not able to find a website for the church, however.

The view above, from the east, is marred by glare from the sun out of frame to the right, but I wanted to show the large stained-glass window on the far left, which roughly matches in size and shape one around the corner that I show later in this post.

To the right of that large window are four smaller ones.

Here's a closeup of the taller of the two uneven steeples. Note that the stone supports for the steeply peaked roof are of different heights.

This next view shows the western side of the church, along Prospect Street, including the second large stained-glass window, partly blocked by a low wing of the building.

Here's an unobstructed view of the large arched window on the west. Unfortunately, I think there is clear glass on this side of the stained-glass, reflections from which obscure detail of the stained-glass panels.

In this next foto, you can see a cupola past a pair of evergreen shrubs that intrude upon a walkway. You can get thru, but you may have to turn a bit sideways and push past soft branches.

Today's last foto shows a closer view of the cupola. It's a little crooked, but I can't straten it without losing even more of the top ornament, the very tip of which I inadvertently cut off as it is. I wasn't wearing my floppy straw hat to shade the monitor when I lined up the shot so didn't see that I needed to zoom out a tad.

Someday I may get inside and check out what the stained-glass windows look like with lite streaming thru them.