Visitation Church - Bay City, MI

Before heading home on Saturday, I wanted to make one more stop.  I wanted to get some pictures of Visitation Church in Bay City.

 The Church was only a few blocks from where I lived but we ended up going to St. Mary's in Bay City because that's were my mom went.  However, I think Visitation is a pretty cool looking church.  In fact, there are two landmarks in Bay City that you can see from the Zilwaukee Bridge and this is one of them.

 There are two ways that give an idea for the identity of an area.  One way is to take a stroll through a graveyard nearby and look at the names on the headstones.  That would give you a clue to the ethnicity.

 The other way is to look at the churches.  The area that this church sets in is called Banks and it was predominantly French.

 The full name of this Church is Notre Dame de la Visitation which mans Our Lady of the Visitation.  Like I said, it is a pretty ornate church.

 The tower stands headfirst over the surrounding area.

 The stained glass is pretty cool but I couldn't see that because this church is being closed.  I guess that's a symptom of a town that is much smaller now than it used to be.

 I loved the look of this.

 My mom said that these were gargoyles, but I'm not really seeing it.  They are still pretty neat though.

 Another one.

 And the requisite statue of Mary.

 Looking up at the cross.  You can see the effects of time on this.  Kind of a shame because this is a pretty beautiful building.

 Another one of the highlights on the building.

And one last shot of the spires.