Touching Up The Louvres

     The Oysterville Restoration Foundation recently was awarded a grant from the Kinsman Foundation of Oregon for the replacement of the shutters on the church – 13 windows, 26 shutters, ten short and sixteen tall.  They are, as far as I can tell, identical to the shutters currently on the church which, themselves, were replacements for older ones.
     The earliest photograph we have of the church was taken in 1903, eleven years after it was built.  That picture shows the shutters, neatly latched in the open position.  Over the years, the church has been photographed hundreds of times, but I have never seen a picture that shows the shutters closed.  Even when the church was in extreme disrepair and the steeple had to be boarded up to keep the rain out, the shutters were left open.
     Granted, there are pictures that show windows with no shutters.  That is the case now, as well.  Several are missing – either fallen off or taken down due to the ravages of time and weather.  Even some of those that are still in place right now, are hanging by that proverbial thread.  It will be good to get the new ones in place before the winter storms hit.
     Not that our shutters were ever used to keep out the elements.  In fact, by their very style, louvered shutters are designed to take advantage of cooling breezes.  I remember admiring all the shuttered buildings in Savannah, Georgia, years ago.  With windows wide open and the louvered shutters closed, the bright sun and pesky insects were kept out and the air circulated freely inside.  Hardly a design necessity here on the northwest coast.  (And seldom used in Savannah, either, in these days of modern air conditioning.)
     Besides, I think the louvers on the Savannah shutters actually moved and could be adjusted to catch the breeze at just the right angle.  Ours are fixed – another indicator that they were meant solely for decoration.  And, I must say, the church looks far better when they are all in place.  The building has a sort of naked look without them.
     And speaking of naked…I was interested to learn that the term “louver” is thought to have come from the time of Louis the XIV.  It seems that the French monarch was a bit of a voyeur, and when he moved his residence from the Louvre to the Palace at Versailles his habit was to take inconspicuous peeks through the shutters at the lovely ladies of his court as they bathed in the garden ponds.
     I wonder if all those staunch Baptists who chose this church design (shutters and all) had any notion about that particular piece of folklore.  I sincerely doubt it.