CityView Magazine

& See be seen ProfEssional oPtician���s Professional Optician���s inventory includes exclusive lines such as Lindberg, Cazal, Caviar, Christian Dior, Kazuo Kawasaki, Silhouette, Giorgio Armani as well as sunglass styles by Oakley, Costa Del Mar, Ray-Ban and more... Extraordinary Eyewear Professional oPtician���s 910.483.0548 1635 Owen Drive | Fayetteville, NC 28304 Bordeaux Center Inc. B ordeaux Center has been one of Fayetteville���s favorite places to shop since 1963 and is fast becoming Fayetteville���s newest one-stop medical community! It is well known for its replica of the Eiffel Tower and is conveniently located next to Cape Fear Valley Medical Center. SpaCe available Retail ��� Office ��� Medical Owen Drive Fayetteville, NC 28304 Call Janet at 910.323.0063 www.BordeauxCenter.com 40 | April ��� 2013 ples ��� beautiful, classic, iconic steeples ��� all aiming skyward, all with bells of their own. But not all of them routinely ringing like those at First Presbyterian. Hay Street United Methodist Church, for example, plays hymns every hour on the hour, but they���re not from live bells inside the belfry; they���re are all a recording broadcast from four speakers. ���It���s a computerized, electronic bell system, is what it is,��� said church trustee David Edwards. That said, Hay Street���s bell tower, with its solitary bell inside, is one of the loveliest I���ve seen anywhere. The brickwork and stained glass windows give it a castle-like appearance, a cathedral reminiscent of the Old World. Built in 1908, the church is on the National Register of Historic Places. As for the bell, which dates back to about 1883, ���we honestly don���t ring it often,��� said Dee Stafford, the church administrator. But what Hay Street United Methodist Church lacks in real-deal dings, it more than makes up for in its show-stopping architecture. In the interest of full disclosure, I attend a thoroughly modern church where steeples and bells are non-existent. We have a band of young guys in skinny jeans, not a choir of people in robes. We meet in an old Food Lion in an old strip mall. And that���s okay: Pastors are quick to note that the church is not a building, it���s the people. The modern megachurch, in an effort to woo the younger crowd, has de-emphasized steeples. Again, that���s okay: Making church attractive to teens and 20-somethings, who may squirm at the thought of pews and peals of bells, is an admirable thing. But in my heart of hearts, I���m an old soul. I love churches that look like, well, churches. That���s an entirely earthly and materialistic view, but I excuse myself. Stained glass and steeples make my eyes shine and my soul stir in a way a big box cannot. The First Baptist Church, right next door to Hay Street United Methodist Church, is just such a place. Like its neighbor, the bell tower is an imposing brick structure with stained glass windows. Arched, open-air windows at the top offer a near unobstructed view of the 2,500-pound bell, about as heavy as

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