Church on Sunday: Zack

Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Zack (built 1879), dressed for Easter.

This clean white clapboard church, with its churchyard in back, is the larger of two in tiny Zack. The other, and a little about Zack, here.

March of time

English ivy creeps up the turret of a hundred-year-old house.

Though it can't be good for the siding, I love to see vines growing like this on buildings, and wish there were more of it around town. If I could find some "vine eyes," - small metal eyes which slip into the mortar joints between bricks, through which can be threaded wires for non-clinging vines - I'd try to grow flowering vines like cross vine and jasmine on the outside of our house. As it is, we have to tear back our ivy every year to keep it from damaging the brick.

Just east of town

Another view of the spring fields off of Old Farm Rd.

One of the great pleasures of living in Lexington is that only a few minutes' drive from the center, in almost any direction, takes one into some of the most beautiful country in Virginia. It is even possible to walk out along a few of the less-traveled roads, without resorting to a car at all. The scene above can easily be reached by foot (if you like walking).

Runner up

In my search for yellow around town I also found these empire yellow walls at Hamilton Robbins on Main St.

The image of the arch-top window in the display is echoed in the reflections of both the courthouse and the R.E. Lee Hotel across the street.

Theme Day April 2009: Yellow

A spring display in the window of Pumpkinseeds, at the corner of Washington and Main.

Today is the first of the month, and daily city bloggers around the world are posting on the April theme: Yellow. Many shops around town have displays featuring yellow at the moment, so there was much to choose from. This shot had a special appeal for me.

To see how other bloggers have interpreted the theme, click here to view thumbnails for all participants.

Zack

The signpost for the rural locality of Zack, with Walker's Creek Community Church in the background.

At the far north boundary of Rockbridge County - about 20 miles from Lexington - lies Zack, here amidst the green fields and leafless wooded hills of early spring. This settlement, though tiny, has two churches! (I'll post the second next Sunday.) One church hosts services Sunday mornings, the other offers three services on Sunday afternoons -- at 1, 3 and 5pm. Other than the farms, the firehouse, a handful of "interlopers," and a surfeit of natural beauty, that's about it for Zack. The old store and gas station are no longer in operation.

According to a local resident, underneath the vinyl siding above is a log structure close to 175 years old.

Late afternoon again

A front porch on White Street catches the setting sun.

Church on Sunday: A different view

The back side of the Randolph Street Methodist Church has but three openings: a red door (with sidelights), a small Gothic window, and an even smaller round window up top. Makes you wonder what's up there....

(The front has a much larger window.)

This photo was taken from the east end of the Nelson St. bridge.

Stairway to...

...not heaven, but the parking lot.

The stair inside the cupola at the Lenfest Center for the Arts at Washington and Lee leads to a bridge over Nelson St., and the parking garage beyond. The distinctive railings, with circles forming a top border, are used throughout the campus.

Post office frieze

The frieze over the entrance to the post office on Lee St.

The U.S. government erected this building at the corner of Nelson and Lee streets between 1911 and 1913. The land had formerly been the grand front lawn of the house of Samuel McDowell Reid, built 1824. (The Reid-White house is still there, its original front door now facing the unlovely back of the post office.)

There are three symbols repeated across the width of the frieze: The caduceus of Hermes (two serpents intertwined about a staff with wings), Hermes having been the first symbol of the U.S. Post Office; a torch with a laurel wreath (presumably symbolizing victory); and a third motif, of crossed swords and perhaps a shield or crest, the meaning of which I cannot identify. (If you know what it is, please leave a comment.)

A neighbor of mine likes to say that this building was intended as a symbol of the strength of the federal government in the post-war South. The words "Erected by the United States Government," with the year, figure prominently above the architrave.

Old Farm

Another composition in orange-red and green, this time in the county. Could this be the old farm that gives Old Farm Road its name?

The farmhouse appears to be being gutted inside (that's a dumpster behind the boxwood at left). I wonder what will become of that beautifully rusty roof.

Serpentine walk

A wooden gate echoes the pattern of the brick walk beyond.

Although this house on Jackson Avenue is classically symmetrical, the front walk does not beat a path straight to the door (as is usual), but curves around from the side. This confounds the symmetry, but makes the front porch seem much more private - even mysterious - behind a hedge and two boxwood domes.

Rolling

Hills off of Old Farm Rd., just south of the city limits, facing west. Sorry I couldn't catch the birdsong.

Top of the hill

This 1906 house on Jackson Ave. has an especially pleasing color palette, I think, particularly in combination with the lawn and brick steps.