For as much time as we’ve spent in the Northern regions of the city, it’s hard to believe that we haven’t come back to the Great Northeast since, well, all the way back near the beginning of this kooky experiment—week five, nearly nine months. Damn, it’s been a while.
It’s nothing personal against the Northeast. After all, this is Philly’s main tax base. Where would the city be without it? But the area isn’t really known for awesome, crazy old buildings. Part of that is due to the hasty, careless rush to colonize the area that started around the middle of last century. Why bother with art when you’ve got swarms of ugly tract housing to build? More importantly, the area started to develop at a time when building styles were moving away from the classical notions the Project loves so well. It’s a wonder the Northeast was able to give us anything at all.
St. Dominic predates all that nasty business, though. Its 1849 founding date establishes it not just as the NE’s oldest parish, but as one of the oldest parishes we’ve seen so far. It also provides hope that maybe Martin of Tours isn’t the only significant church in the area.
In many ways Dominic delivers on the promise. It boasts a beautifully creepy, Gothic brown stone exterior, large rose window, and some very cool stone sculpting on the door frames and arches. But it also falls victim to the dreaded St. Cyprian Effect, as in the interior isn’t quite as magnificent as you’d think. The stained glass is lovely, bolstered by the presence of, count ‘em, three rose windows, and any church that uses its organ gets serious props in my book.
The problem is that it’s neither big enough nor ornate enough to really stand out. The interior roof design is really reminiscent of Holy Name of Jesus, where the roof starts of low at the sides and slants upward toward the middle, where it opens up into a long, high, narrow corridor. It’s not a bad design, but it means that most of the roof is low-set, which lessens the size impact. Ornamentally, its white and gold color scheme has some nice touches, and we get the first appearance of wood paneling since St. Francis of Assisi, but that’s about all. In the end, it’s too plain to really excel. Not as plain as Holy Name, but plain enough.
Good, but not great.
Size Rating: 7.5 out of 10
Ornamentation Rating: 7.5 out of 10
Overall Design Rating: 7.5 out of 10 crosses
