About This Blog

A Brief History

The Land of the Cross-Tipped Churches is located in the northwestern part of Ohio. The name comes from the large number of Catholic churches with cross-tipped-spires that dominated the skyline and region.  This large collection of churches started popping up in the late 18^th and early 19^th century as the growing immigrant population mostly of German decent desired to grow their faith like their crops closer to home.  The Society of the Most Precious Blood under the leadership of Father Brunner was instrumental in the construction and founding of many of these churches. Today many of the buildings still stand with some so close together you can literally travel from steeple to steeple. In 1979 many of the churches were added to the National Register of Historic Places.

As part of the Ohio Scenic Byway program a route-designated The Land of the Cross-Tipped Churches was created to honor these historic monuments. The route follows State Route 119 West - starting with the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in McCartyville and then continues all the way to Fort Recovery. From there you go north along State Route 49 ending at the Saint Anthony church.

The Blog

I discovered the byway while doing some online research in June of 2008 and have been taking and posting pictures of these beautiful churches ever since.  Over the years the blog has gone through a few changes. The biggest change was going from one large post with many pictures to many posts with one or two pictures.  The last major change was 2012, when I changed from a two-column format to three. The header, footer and background graphics have changed also over the years. I am very pleased with this latest incarnation and do not foresee any major changes in the near future.

LEFT SIDE BAR

The Churches – A small slide show of The Land of the Cross Tipped Churches.

Search This Blog – Added in 2012. If you can’t find what you’re looking for in the Categories section try the search function. It will search and list any post that matches your entered search criteria.

Email Me – Added in 2012.  I love hearing from folks. Feel free to drop me a line or two. russsteeplechaser@gmail.com

New Year Resolutions – May state of the union for the New Year.

Featured Post – Added in 2012.  I created this side bar list to highlight some of the post that I really liked or that had a special theme or meaning to me.

About This Blog – Overview and Site Map for the Blog

How It All Started – My story on how this all started.

Diary Of A Steeple Chaser – Formally called the Weekly Journal. This is simply a way for me to provide information that doesn’t fit the Picture Post format.

Land of the Cross Tipped Churches Byway – A pectoral tour of the churches and sites you will encounter on this beautiful Ohio Scenic Byway.

Postcard Series – This series will feature postcard style pictures of the Churches.  I started this in 2012 with a dozen Black and White postcards.  The series will continue in 2013 with a vintage photochrom look and feel. These will get posted the first Monday of every month.

The Way of the Cross Series - When active this series gets posted every Sunday until complete.  I usually use a set of the Stations of the Cross from one church that I have photographed.  Each Sunday is a different station and my include scripture and devotions.

Weekly Scripture – I started this in 2012 as a way to breath new life in some the pictures that I had taken and posted previously. A sort of Mini Best Of with added scripture to complement it. These get posted every Saturday.

Selected Poetry – Every now and then I find a poem that goes well with one of my pictures. These are the ones that I feel picture and poem both work extremely well together.

Selected Prayer – Like the Selected Poetry above these are the ones that I believe worked out the best.

A Prayer Before The Relics – I had the good fortune of being able to take pictures of the Relic Chapel at the Shrine of the Holy Relics at night. This post features those pictures along with the “A Prayer Before The Relics” found on a prayer card provided by the shrine.

Cross Tipped Church Poem – This poem was written by my cousin Dave while touring with me on one of my photo-outings.

Top Ten Pictures – Every January I go through and try and come up with the 10 Best Pictures from the previous year.  It can be hard sometimes on which ones make it and which ones don’t

Poster Series – Sometimes I look at a picture and say gee that would make a great poster.  I am hoping to add steadily to this new collection in the upcoming year.

Associated Links – Web Links to related content concerning The Land of the Cross-Tipped Churches.

Join This Site – If you like the blog please join and you will get updated when new posts arrive.

Stats – Stats for the blog can be found by clicking on the sitemeter link.

RIGHT SIDE BAR

Artist Statement – A blurb about my work and me.

Blog Archive – An archive of post from the beginning of the blog by year.

Categories – All post have tags/labels that correspond to places and or events that the picture was taken making it easy to find pictures of a particular church.