Sunday, April 25, 2010

Sepia Saturday #20 - "Steeplejack"


  
This is the Congregational Church in the village of Southfield, Town of New Marlborough, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, taken on July 31, 1926.

Last summer our church was being painted, and a big cherry-picker type machine sat in front of the church for several weeks so the painters could go up on a lift to paint the steeple.  I teased them, asking why they were not doing it 'the old fashioned way', because it would be less costly... I said with a wink, and then produced these photos for the church archives.

My great grandfather, Howard Augustus Cook (1870-1938) took these photographs when the Steeplejack came to town! 

Hope you can enlarge them to view the man at the very top.  The current painters told me there is still a large hook at the top that the Steeplejack used to attach the rope around his waist on the steeple while he painted.


Photographs property of Janice Stiles-Boults

4 comments:

  1. The Steeplejack certainly had a lot more courage than I have. I'd expect a good fat lot of money if that was what was expected of me.

    A fun post and some great photos.

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  2. Sepia Saturday does buildings again. And just as fascinating as last week. One has to have great admiration for photographers who captured such prosaic events knowing that they would hold a great fascination for generations to come.

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  3. Wow, great photos, especially enlarged. Now there's a man who did not fear heights!

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  4. So that's what a steeplejack is ! I did enlarge it and it's scary just to look at the photo.

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