Sunlight on a cold November day streams into the little white chapel at the Prairie Grove Cemetery in the Waynedale area of Fort Wayne, Indiana several months after the fire that damaged the building in March of 2008. Workmen restoring the little church have torn up some of the water and fire damaged carpet and pushed the pews to one side. Restoration began with the replacement of the roof in November, 2008. Work was then stopped because of the winter.
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This is the little white church in the Prairie Grove Cemetery on Old Trail road in Waynedale. I made this photograph a couple weeks after vandals set the building on fire in the middle of the night. Most of the damage was done to the back of the building, which is no longer used.
See the rest of my photographs of the Prairie Grove Cemetery Chapel
The old Prairie Grove Cemetery in the Waynedale section of Fort Wayne, Indiana was once surrounded by a beautiful wrought iron fence. Today, only a small section of fence remains near the little white chapel on Old Trail Road.
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The little Prairie Grove Cemetery in the Waynedale area of Fort Wayne, Indiana is home to one of the most beautiful old churches in the city. Unlike the old richly decorated brick Catholic and Lutheran churches downtown, this 19th century building is simple in the extreme. No one can remember exactly when it was built, but a recent newspaper article said that the little chapel is more than 150 years old, making it one of the oldest buildings in Allen County. I began photographing it in 1998, when I made a photograph of it for my senior project in art school. Since then I have returned many times over the years, even getting the cemetery caretaker to let me inside to photograph the interior. The church has been unused and empty since the early 1990’s, when it was last used by a small non-denominational congregation.
This is my latest photograph of the building. The sign once had a statement of faith in the Christian Gospel spelled out with moveable plastic letters that have since fallen into a jumbled pile in the bottom of the sign frame.
See the rest of my photographs of the Prairie Grove Cemetery Chapel
