Thursday, December 18, 2008

Greensburg, Kansas - circa 1963

Greensburg, Kansas is my hometown. I was not born there, but most in my family were, back three generations. Greensburg is in the process of rebuilding from a tornado that destroyed most of the town on May 4, 2007. My sister and I were very affected by the thought of all that was familiar in our hometown has disappeared.

These photos were in a box that we sorted through at Thanksgiving:

This is the original First Christian Church. I was baptized there a year or two after this photo was taken. (1963 according to the date on the back of the photo)This building became an antique store and a new church was built a little South of town in the early 70's. It was also called the First Christian Church, although I always thought of it as the Second First Christian Church.

This is the Second First Christian Church being rebuilt (October, 08 progress)


It is the Third First Christian Church.

It has a piece of the original, though.



This is the water tower: pre 5/4/07.
The water tower was an ever present icon. We lived across the street and one house away from it. Sometimes it would over-flow. In the summer, that meant playing in the "rain" on a sunny day. In the winter, it meant a winter wonderland full of icicles on the way to Sunday school.

I don't recognize where the camera was when this photo was taken, but it gives me the feeling of a window to the past.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wonder why that picture of the first First Christian Church was taken. We don't usually photograph things that are such a stable and long time part of our lives. I'm glad someone did, tho. Love, WS

Anita said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anita said...

ok.. I just realized my mistake on that window picture... from the angle and distance of the water tower I think it's taken from the third floor of the high school... of course by the time I went to school there, the top two floors weren't used for anything but storage. Didn't stop us from sneaking up to check it out anyway!

Great photos... :)

Iron Needles said...

Glad we sorted through as much as we did, and wish we could have gone through the slides together, too.

It helps cement the memories.

Anonymous said...

The picture looks like it was taken from the windows in the courthouse, however the angle is wrong, so the negative could have been printed backwords. It doesn't look like the top floor of the school because the water tower looks farther away then the block and a half that would have been.

That Crazy Ajumma said...

Hello!
I am dropping by to leave a comment from Feeling Stitchy's Holiday Comment Expedition.
I know what you mean by everyone relocating and your house being central.Mine has become the same way for the past 2 years.Mostly because I have the largest room to have the whole family in.
Merry Christmas!

Anonymous said...

My guess is that some one wanted a picture after the bell tower or steeple was taken down.
Wrapper

jan said...

I didn't know that there ever was a steeple! Why did they take it down?

Inquiring minds want to know!