Good Friday Morning!
Sometimes we find things along the road, on our way from place to place, and say to ourselves "we really should go back there, when we have more time". Today's image is one of those spots. A while back, we found our way out to Panther Mountain - along the Gauley River National Recreation Area, on the Nicholas County side of the river. It was a beautiful part of the state - even in the mid-Winter - with a character that spoke to it's age, and how it was a bit remote - the character still felt old-time and very rural.
We found some beautiful old farm houses, a couple of gorgeous waterfalls, and this church - which we didn't have time to do "right" when we found it. The Arnet Methodist Church is a classic, old-fashioned, country church - one room, no bathrooms, no basement, just the main nave, with a few incandescent lamps strung across the room, set on stone foundations. The sign says it was built in 1903, and I wasn't able to find much about it's history in the usual places. Having grown up in central West Virginia, it wasn't hard to imagine this place during "revival", on a hot summer night, full of people, singing and fanning themselves with their programs - cause I could remember those nights - and these old churches didn't have air conditioning.
When we first found it, I thought to myself that I really wanted to try and capture it with the night sky - I could almost envision the stars behind it. When we made our next set of plans to this part of the world, this wasn't a "drive by", it was the destination - and I hope I represented it well.
Hope folks have a great weekend.
(Give me that) Old Time Religion - West Virginia