Just over a century ago, chimeras, grotesques and gargoyles were fashionable decorative treatments on public buildings. These features, drawn from fantasy and mythology, added a gothic character to the architecture of Mauch Chunk, current Jim Thorpe, during the late Victorian period.

In architecture, a chimera is a fantastic, mythical or grotesque decorative feature. A grotesque is an eerie character carved in stone. A gargoyle is a pipe-like device (think of the word gargle) used as a spout to drain water from a roof.In Gothic architecture, gargoyles were designed in the shape of grotesques. For instance, a Gothic building might drain its roof through the mouth of a stone sculpture in the shape of a vicious feathered dragon.Barrett Ravenhurst has been drawn to the gothic chimeras, grotesques and gargoyles that adorn the Carbon County Courthouse, the Dimmick Memorial Library, St. Mark's Church, and the Chapel of the Resurrection in Jim Thorpe. He finds each design a curiosity worth examining.As a boy, Ravenhurst grew up helping his mother at the concession stands of the Park and Classic theaters in Lehighton. Practically raised in movie theaters, he watched all the movies that played there. His favorite film was the 1939 Charles Laughton version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame."The Hunchback of Notre Dame was always one of my favorites," Ravenhurst said. "Charles Laughton was amazing. Because it was Notre Dame, there were tons of gargoyles in the film."Ravenhurst had no idea how right he was. Mauch Chunk's chimeras, grotesques and gargoyles came as a result of a revival of Gothic architecture. This revival began in 1831 with the publication of Victor Hugo's Notre-Dame de Paris, "Our Lady of Paris" - published in the U.S. as The Hunchback of Notre Dame.Hugo is said to have written the book featuring the aging cathedral with its chimeras, grotesques and gargoyles to create an interest in its preservation. He did create an interest in reviving the gothic, but the interest became focused in the creation of new Gothic Revival buildings rather than preservation of the medieval structures. In these revival designs, the need for gargoyles had largely been replaced by drain pipes, so the stone sculptures were used as design elements.In the days of the medieval cathedrals, the architects incorporated design elements into the building to attract and convert peasants from Paganism. They were under the assumption that the Pagans worshiped fierce creatures, so they had their carvers build stone creatures that were even fiercer, especially when water would pour from their mouths during a rainstorm.By the second half of the 1800s, the chimeras, grotesques and gargoyles in Gothic Revival architecture were principally for decoration and no longer had any religious significance. Some architects began having their carvers put funny or ironic characters where grotesques would be expected.For instance, on the recently completed Washington National Cathedral, amongst the grotesques on a corner of the Gothic Revival building are a raccoon, a girl with pigtails and braces, a man with large teeth and an umbrella, and a bust of Darth Vader. In the 1980s the Cathedral, with National Geographic World magazine, sponsored a competition for children to design decorative sculpture for the Cathedral, and these were the finalists.High on the Carbon County Courthouse, at the four corners of the tile roof are grotesques with a bat-like body and a Shrek-like face. Were it a true Gothic design, the mouth of the monster would serve as a drain-it would be a true gargoyle. This third courthouse is a Romanesque revival built in 1893 and designed by L.S. Jacoby of Allentown.To the left of the window above entrance door to the Dimmick Memorial Library is a grotesque of a lion peering through dense foliage. The grotesque is a bas relief designed as a brick-colored tile. The library was built in Jacobean Revival style in 1889 by T. Rooney Williamson of Philadelphia.At St. Mark's Episcopal Church is a grotesque of a lion standing on its hind legs, holding an open book or a set of tablets, somewhat as Moses would have held the tablets of the Commandments. The writing on the sculpture is in Greek and is said to be a Biblical passage. The Church is a Gothic Revival design built in 1869 (the lion grotesque is part of a 1887) and designed by Richard Upjohn of Boston.There are two grotesques on the Chapel of the Resurrection at the Mauch Chunk Cemetery. Each has a newt-shaped body with its front legs elbowed backwards, pushing off the wall. These foot-long creatures are believed to be based on gargoyles on the Notre Dame Cathedral.These grotesques appear to be decorative since the mouth opening does not appear designed to pass water, and these figures appear on only one side of the building-whereas if it were needed for drainage, they would be in all four corners of the building.Ravenhurst noted that many people, unfamiliar with chimeras, grotesques and gargoyles believe they are related to devil worship. Quite the contrary, he assures them, "They were made to scare away evil."Barrett Ravenhurst operates the Emporium of Curious Goods in Jim Thorpe.