Saint John's Baptist Church, Stotesbury West Virginia

Stotesbury West Virginia was a coal camp in Raleigh County West Virginia. It was part of the EE White Coal company and named for ET Stotesbury. By ~2002, most mining stopped here. As is the case with coal camps, once the coal goes, the town begins to wither. Coal towns, no matter how small or large exist to provide a place to live for those that mine the coal. Its a cold hard fact. Stotesbury, like so many other coal towns had segregated communities. In those communities, people went to church, school, died, were born etc etc. By ~2004, I was told of this incredible church at Stotesbury. It was named Saint Johns.SO, one day I happened to be there and at first sight, I knew this was a special and unique structure. The church itself is from the early 20th century, the late 19 teens. I have the corner stone below. Please feel free to comment as any feedback is welcomed. You can click on an image and see its original size. IF you would like a print, please contact me and we can discuss a fee.

WHY have this blurry dark image? Because this is what hooked me. Every wall resembled a face. A totally wooden multi story structure. The shapes were compelling. This building collapsed in late 2009. It was burned, so others would not try to enter and be injured. I will say now, the absolute neglect of this building was shameful. My fellow photographers and hobbyists watched it decay. The day was coming. We took all the pics we could...This is a starter series. I will have more pictures of Stotesbury coming soon!

Below, the cornerstone. Idiots have stolen this. It was also picked at over the years, so I got the image below, by the third year of visiting, imbeciles had chipped away much of it.

AMAZING, that early visit, I did make it inside. The widows and woodwork amazed me.

Then I saw the STAY OUT spray painted on the front door...A house of worship should never have this sign. I understood that this place was going to die. I saw the damages, the vandalism. People would drink here, fuck here, do drugs here and destroy the graves in the back. So I think I did the decent thing, I saved what I could.

Brilliant wood working and carpentry

And to this date, I swear, the building and window frames resembled large faces.

There is a cemetery in the back of this church. I took what pics I could. The graves were in some cases violated totally. I have no idea what compels a person to violate a grave. Honestly, there was so much beauty, I captured what I wanted and was happy to do so.