Sunday, January 24, 2016

St. William Catholic Church

When a new church building for St. William opened in 1980, there were 900 member families.
By 2012, there were 3200 member families and the church was bursting its seams.


So, two thirds of the 1980 building was demolished and a new $11 million church was built to replace it, with 40 percent more seats.  The new church was designed to look like the one it replaced.

With most of the building's mass located to the rear of the property, 
the front of the church masks the real size of the church.

The theme for City Daily Photo bloggers on February 1 is
"A Scene from a Cafe or Coffee House."

16 comments:

PerthDailyPhoto said...

Lovely piece of architecture Jack, the arched verandahs are a super feature. Bit like a religious hacienda :)

Lowell said...

This is similar to some of our Catholic churches up this away. Naples must be growing by leaps and bounds and probably much faster today what with the winter weather.

Re your comment on Ocala: The mannequin seemed to be leaning forward, and I anthropomorphized her by imagining she would like to move toward being a fully human being. Thus, moving toward homo sapianism (which is a term I made up...at least I don't think it's a term).

What can I say, some days are slower than others and I have to make up my own fun!

EG CameraGirl said...

A success story when so many church congregations are dwindling!

cieldequimper said...

That's very nice.

I've got the wrong blog. I thought I was visiting Ottawa, can you imagine my surprise??? :-)

Sylvia K said...

Ah, a success story it is these days!! A terrific capture as always! Hope you have a great day, Jack! Enjoy!!

Taken For Granted said...

With that much spent, this must be an impressive church. My Grandfather's business was financing church buildings. Good they wanted the new building to look like the old one, so it is familiar for the neighborhood and congregation.

Jeevan said...

Simply beautiful architecture encompassed with pretty landscape! And also nice perspective in the image over the Church.

SRQ said...

Looks impressive from this angle alone. Lots of churches being built east of I-75 in the Sarasota area -- very interesting.

Michelle said...

An impressive building with an impressive congregation.

Sharon said...

It fits in with it's surroundings very well.

William Kendall said...

It looks like it fits in right with the surroundings.

RedPat said...

It is certainly nice to hear of a congregation increasing in size, Jack!
What is happening for the Feb theme day?

Lois said...

Very pretty Jack! I love the roof and those arches.

RedPat said...

I just saw the new theme on the CDP site, Jack! A hard one if you don't drink coffee!

Jack said...

RedPat, I post photos of churches and I don't go to church.

Kay said...

That is amazing growth for the church.