Modernist Catholic Churches. These concrete and clear line edifices all date from the late 50s to the turn of the 70s and are from the Archdiocese of Cincinatti. Their mammoth size and confident style all testify to a boom time for American Catholicism when Mass attendance was huge and vocations to the priesthood were at an all time peak. Even new convents were being built at this time. Unthinkable now, when (in the West at least) the thought of a religious vocation is not considered a marketable option.

Here is an overdue posting of vintage shop signs photographed on my holiday to Malta. All of these flaking and crumbling beauties were seen in the lovely capital city Valletta. The majority of these fascia stood above vacant businesses so I suppose some will be disappearing shortly.