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Holy Land U.S.A. in Waterbury, Connecticut, was a very quirky but interesting religious tribute to the Holy Land, the vision of a local Waterbury lawyer named John Greco and built with the help of Waterbury Italian volunteers. Holy Land was a tourist destination for years, sometimes drawing 44,000 visitors per year.
I lived in Prospect, Connecticut for most of my first 33 years, and when I was young, in the 1970's, my father brought me to Holy Land U.S.A. I have some VERY vague memories of Holy Land, just mainly just an image of it being on a hill (quite a climb for a youngster!), and the miniature buildings.
Sadly, Holy Land U.S.A. is currently in a very bad state of disrepair and the area surrounding it is pretty bad. I thought about it recently (now that I live in the Midwest) and realized I had not given Holy Land U.S.A. a second thought at all while I lived there, despite having been by there a thousand times. During my most recent trip back to Connecticut, I thought I'd go to see it after all these years, and see if I could take some photos. I did and those photos are below (see March 30, 2005).
However, what was really exciting, was when I returned to Indiana - what I was to find in the huge box of slides my mom brought back from Connecticut during her trip about a month before mine. The slides were taken by her uncle, Donald Lucian, back in the 50's and 60's, and among them were some photos of Holy Land U.S.A. when it was new, and some during its construction! I hadn't found ANY photos on the Internet of Holy Land U.S.A. back in it's "heyday", so I added scans of the slides for your enjoyment...it is nice to see Holy Land U.S.A. depicted as it was new, not as decrepit ruins.
March, 2006: I Googled "Holy Land U.S.A" again, and found a great blog site which has old Holy Land U.S.A. postcards and photos, too...I am so glad to see more photos of Holy Land U.S.A. when it was new - check it out below!!
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Holy Land U.S.A. - These photos were slides
taken by my great Uncle, Donald Lucian. The slides weren't dated, so I'm
guessing that these photos were taken in the mid/late 50's or early 60's.
Judging from the most of the photos, it is the 1950's, since Holy Land U.S.A. is still early in construction (the top photos). The bottom photos appear to be more complete. Ironically, in the photos early in construction, Holy Land U.S.A. looks much like it does today, minus the weeds and overgrowth. According to the history on some of the websites below, local Italians helped build Holy Land - and come to find out, my grandfather - Daniel Coradazzi, who was a mason, was among those volunteers who helped construct Holy Land. That makes the current condition of Holy Land all the more sad. |
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More photos taken by my Uncle Don. These were taken of Waterbury from the top of Pine Hill |
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The cross atop Pine Hill during / after construction - photos by Donald Lucian |
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Sign for Holy Land U.S.A. (not the best, see website links below for good photos of the sign) |
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Entrance to Holy Land U.S.A. |
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"Bethlehem - Our Hope" |
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"God made male and female. For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh...what therefore God has joined together let no man put asunder." |
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"Every one who puts away his wife and marries another commits adultery; and he who marries a woman who has been put away commits adultery." |
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"Let each one of you also love his wife just as he
loves himself."
"Let the wife respect the husband." |
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"This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." |
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Temple |
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Jesus is condemned to death. |
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Crèche |
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Various building views |
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The cross as it appears in 2005 |
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Waterbury from the top of Pine Hill, including the Brass Mill Center (mall) |
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 | Holy Land, Batman! - GREAT site with lots of postcards of Holy Land, U.S.A. **MUST SEE!!** |
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Holy Land USA - Institute of Urban Speleologic Studies & Archeology |
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This page was last updated on Saturday, December 29, 2007