One scene that is gone forever

St Francis de Sales Cathedral in Baker City, Oregon in 2006.

St Francis de Sales Cathedral after the renovation in 2008.

Just to conclude this triple series of events and scenes that will never happen again, today I take you to one of my former parishes, the Cathedral of St. Francis de Sales in Baker City, Oregon, where I spent 8 glorious years between 2005 and 2013. The Cathedral was built in 1908, and so I had to celebrate the centennial by doing something special. And this turned out to be a big blessing for the Cathedral sanctuary as we renovated it completely. As you can see from these two photos, which I placed together for a purpose, you can compare what was before and after. Back in 1980, they had built a wall or screen behind the main altar, to coincide with the Vatican II liturgical renewal. The tabernacle, unfortunately, was pushed to the side and the orange/mustardy coloring of the carpet and walls was transformed into something more pleasant to the eye. We also created a Baldacchino right behind the main altar where we placed the tabernacle in a central position. We relocated the 4 statues, two on each side, and the color scheme became blue, as was the new carpet. Some of the pews were also adjusted, The result was something truly special and everyone was pleased with the result. 

The Cathedral during a wedding in 1954

The third photo shows what the Cathedral looked like in the 1950s, and so the triple change was quite dramatic but reverent and at the end very conducive to prayer. A lot of intricate stenciling was discovered during the renovation, and some of it was preserved, just behind the main altar.