Nestled between a very commercial district in Smithfield and the busy but historic district in Chepachet rests the tiny village of Harmony. Few Rhode Islanders even notice it passing swiftly out Route 44 heading towards Connecticut. Several prominent Rhode Island families lived in Harmony around the turn of the 19th Century, though, and in 1816 they built a small one-room schoolhouse next to the Steere Family burial ground. Early school houses in Rhode Island were typically built on land ill-suited for anything of value. You may correctly infer from that statement that congregating in a central location for "schooling" was not considered to be of value. That is evidenced by the location of this building.
In 1825 the building was transitioned from a school to a "Free Meeting House." For that time period, it meant that it could serve as a church or chapel for any group of citizens of any denomination. Well, except Catholic, that is. Prior to Vatican II, the Roman Catholic Church had some strict requirements as to where a Mass could be celebrated, and a multi-denominational building like this was not on the list. Residents would typically hire ministers to perform services of various denominations here, and the building at the time was commonly called the Harmony Chapel. The adjacent cemetery remained private until 1878.
Despite the gorgeous blue sky, I decided to show this as a black and white. I thought the contrast and general lighting of the building was ideal for it, and I thought the shadows of the tree on the roof and lawn would show up better without the distractions of color. I ran this through the "Photo Pop" filter in Topaz Adjust and then adjusted the levels slightly. I added a black and white gradient map in color blend mode. To that I layered a sepia photo filter, and then topped it off with one final levels adjustment.
Looks great in black and white. I like the shadows on the roof. I enjoy all your editing details as well, so appreciate you taking the time to post them
Thanks, everyone! It's not the photo I set out to take, but a system problem at work cut my lunch short. lol
Thanks for the Fav, Meg!