On a recent wintry morning I took my West Shore Community College Photography I class to Guardian Angels Catholic Church in Manistee. Their assignment was to practice composition. This is an annual visit for the spring semester class and always enjoyable because I get to photograph with the students. Also because I love history and further I love writing and photographing about historical events and locations.

Guardian Angels Church has been a Manistee icon since 1891, three years after the parish was founded. The church’s steeple stands 170 feet tall and can be seen throughout Manistee. The church’s original congregation consisted mainly of German and Irish immigrants who had come to Manistee to work in the lumber industry. Many aspects of the church reflect its German and Irish heritage. Some of the features of the church is its carillon which features a chime of 12 massive bells. The bells are played using a keyboard located in a room in the choir loft. The church also has a turn-of-the-century pipe organ with 28 stops and 1,600 pipes.

– rob