The Church That Went To America.....and other worldwide trivia.

........and other interesting but little known snippets from around the world.
Feel free to amaze us.....

I'll start.....

The Church That Went To America.

The early churches of New England and probably right across America are admired for the simple elegance of their design, but it is a little known fact that their design is based almost entirely on St Martin's in the Fields church in London.
The rather unusual name is due to the fact that it was surrounded by fields when it was built, but gradually became a proper urban city church as London grew and spread around it, thereby removing the agricultural element completely.
When it was completed in 1724, it shocked the citizens of London, as it was quite revolutionary to 18th Century eyes.
Until St Martin's was built, it was accepted practise to place the steeple at the east end, not the west end of the church, but architect James Gibbs turned the thing on its head and stuck it at the west end.
He also built an imposing portico above it, which made the whole thing look like a grand entrance to an ancient temple.
Critics and architects marvelled at the audaciousness of the new style church, and after much discussion and argument, the new design became very popular - so much so that several members of Gibbs's staff were enticed to America by offer of large sums of money.
With the design of St Martin's packed in their saddlebags, they moved west as the American settlers moved west, building identical or near identical copies of St Martin's as they went.

St Martin's in the Field (architectural model)...






Richmond, Virginia......