Church Architecture in Miniature

On WIOX tonight, Tuesday, February 9, 7 p.m., hear about Viola and Norman Marks's extraordinary miniatures of churches in the Catskills Region.

On display at The Charles Cook County Office Building in Delhi are a set of miniature carved and painted models of churches from our mountain region.  They were created by Viola Marks and her husband Norman Marks beginning in the 1950s.  Norman and Viola both worked at Bendix in Sidney and lived in Unadilla.  The church models are now part of the collection at Delaware County Historical Association, Delhi, NY.  DCHA organizes exhibits for the Cook building and this one will be on display until the end of February.

Listen tonight at 7 p.m. on WIOX 91.3 FM or wioxradio.org to find out where these churches were built.

Viola says that she sketched the churches, then translated the drawings onto graph paper, which Norman used to cut out the pieces of the models.  Viola carved some of the decoration with an Xacto knife and painted the models.  In keeping with her organizational skills as a systems analyst at Bendix, Viola labeled each of the models and kept a careful list of the churches to go along with the photos of the collection.

The architecture of our country churches in the Catskills is an excellent example of the style and variety of vernacular building in the Catskills. Included are examples of Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, as well as High Victorian Gothic churches, in shapes that hark back to European models or reflect the forms of more current trends.  What would be interesting to a folklorist is discovering how the building was conceived:  was it built by a local builder? with ideas, but no plans, from a builder's guide? He probably knew from the local tradition how to build the usual forms, but how did he add special features of certain styles?  How was this combination of folk form and high style detail affected by changes in transportation and communication?

I hope I have the opportunity in the future to research some of these buildings and to share my findings with you on Catskills Folk, alternate Tuesdays at 7 p.m. on WIOX, 91.3. FM and wioxradio.org.    

Unadilla; Episcopal Organized 1809, built 1816; Methodist built 1850; Presbyterian built 1844.

Unadilla Center: Methodist built 1830; Baptist Church Estab. 1844;
Friends Church (Rogers Hollow) Built 1904

Coventry: United Methodist; Wells Bridge: Baptist; The Methodist Church of Wells Bridge (recently destroyed);
Sand Hill Methodist Church built 1857; First Congregational Church of Coventryville Estab. 1804. 

United Church of Christ First congregational Church of Greene, Org. 1811. built 1987;
Meridale Presbyterian; First Baptist Church - Morris

Delhi: St.Peter's Catholic Church; First Presbyterian; West Delhi: United Presbyterian built 1846

Walton: United Presbyterian Church built 1866; First Methodist Church built 1894;
 Christ Episcopal Church built 1831

Otego: Baptist Church; Presbyterian Church Estab 1805; United Methodist Church

Dry Brook: ME Church Estab. 1867 (Viola's childhood church);
Sidney: First Congregational UCC founded 1808, Plymouth Church first opened 1858 

Sidney Center: Baptist Church constituted 1828; Sidney Center Untied Methodist Church
 Estab 1852 (arson); Harpersfield: Methodist built 1871

Front row: Unadilla Episcopal, Unadilla Presbyterian.
Back row: Unadilla Center Methodist, Unadilla Methodist, Unadilla Center Baptist