Out behind the sanctuary on the grounds of most churches in the snowy north there used to be a long shed. Covered on the top and three sides, it was usually open on the south side. That's where church attenders stowed their horses and buggies during the service.

They started tearing down the sheds around 1915. I've read a lot of church histories, and many report how the space was needed for automobiles. I remember as a child seeing a few of the sheds used for storage, but the records say by the mid 1920s most were demolished.

The horse shed gave way to the parking lot. But those same histories don't report the paving of the lots until the 1950s. You can imagine during the intervening 30 years the rainy Sundays when the old horse lot was a muddy mess.

In our time, a lot of walls have come down. And we don't yet know what to do with the space that has been created. And if the sheds are any lesson, it will be some time before we know what, if anything, will replace them.

One nation, ...