Newman Congregational Church
27 October 2014 -- 300/365
East Providence, Rhode Island
The New England countryside is known for these extremely picturesque white churches. To understand why, it's important to understand a bit about the people that settled this area. There were two fundamental groups that arrived in New England in the early 1600s. Every schoolkid in the States is familiar with the (inaccurate) story of the Pilgrims that landed in Plymouth. What they're not taught is that these pilgrims were Separatists. They were Protestant Christians who separated from the Church of England to form independent churches governed by the popular rule of the congregation. These Separatists formed the Plymouth Bay Colony and spread from what's now Cape Cod, Massachusetts west to Narragansett Bay. The border was roughly what is today the Seekonk River. A second wave of colonists arrived in what is now Boston and Salem in 1630. Unlike the Plymouth settlers, these were Puritans. They sought to purify the Church of England, not separate from it, and the land they occupied here was the Massachusetts Bay Colony. (Remember the Salem witch trials? That was the legacy of the Puritans.) By the late 1600s, though, the two groups were virtually indistinguishable, and the two colonies were merged into one. By the time of the American Revolution, only the Massachusetts Bay Colony remained, comprising all of the land originally settled by both the Separatists and the Puritans. The two religious groups became known as Congregationalists, a denomination that is still prominent in New England today. In virtually every small village in New England, a Congregational Church (either Puritan or Separatist) marked the center of town and was prominently built at the edge of the town green or common.
The congregation that comprises the Newman Congregational Church seen in today's photo was gathered in 1643. At the time, this area (now East Providence, Rhode Island) was part of Rehoboth in the Plymouth Bay Colony. These Congregationalists are descended from the Separatists that settled this area.
Post processing started with a classic filter in Topaz B&W FX. I adjusted color sensitivity sliders, adaptive exposure, regions, contrast, boost black, boost white, and protect highlights. A levels adjustment was added in PSE.
