Albany's Magnificent Burden: St. Joseph's Church
ALBANY’S MAGNIFICENT BURDEN A church too grand for human use Photo by Joe Hoffman His tiny claws ticked, echoed against the ornate interior, and suspended him sixty, now seventy feet above the floor. Swishing his bushy tail to balance on the high archway, he could swivel around to gawk at the scene below: the marble speckled with bird droppings, the looming and water-damaged Stations of the Cross staring coldly down from the walls, and the countless pages of sheet music strewn from the nave to the narthex. It’s clear why the New York Times wrote in 1865 at St. Joseph’s dedication that the Albany church was “one of the most magnificent edifices on this Continent.” The 14,350 square feet of interior space still stagger the imagination, and the 31 hand-carved cherubim still fly high above your head with an unearthly serenity. But St. Joe’s past life has faded. About a hundred years after being painstakingly designed and constructed as a place of Mass for the hug...