Full disclosure, our firm was involved in moving St. Boniface to a new facility, leaving a Mid Century Modern church vacant and ready for a new use. The congregation built a distinctive stone edifice in 1960 close to the active creek that runs along the edge of the unincorporated town of Comfort, Texas. That creek is the reason for the church’s relocation in 2006. On two separate occasions, major ... Read More
In the 1980’s, the exterior of Christus Church in Hanover was preserved as a significant Neo-Gothic historic landmark. But the interior remained in a deteriorated state. The congregation on its own was unable to afford the major upgrades needed to maintain the soaring 19th Century nave. So local officials stepped in to assist. Solving two problems at once, Hanover leaders arranged to renovate the ... Read More
The structure on 125th Street dates from 1927, and back then it was a movie theater. Nearly 50 years later, the LaGree Baptist Church moved in. An established congregation, LaGree had been in other neighborhood locations over a number of years. The old theater was readily adapted with theater seats replacing pews and the stage area converted to a pulpit area. The adaptive reuse served the church ... Read More
In 1979, the second Webster Presbyterian Church had seen better days. The first church building only lasted four years and was detroyed by a hurrican in 1900. Though this sturdy structure had fared much better, the congregation had grown and constucted a new building in 1960. Now in disrepair, ministry leaders were planning to tear the old church down. The church needed a savior, a dynamic and ... Read More
Facebook has a setting for an account of someone who is deceased - it becomes memorialized. Friends and loved ones can continue to post memories or share images, and next to the person’s name will be the word “Remembering.” I don’t know whether a similar status is available when a church goes under, but apparently it’s needed for the Facebook page of the Bethesda Baptist Church in Jersey City. ... Read More
On today’s National Public Radio’s Marketplace, reporter Bobby Allyn notes the trend of empty churches that are given new life as residential properties. A number of these churches are converted into prime properties in neighborhoods with rising property values and limited areas for new residential developments. Allyn references data from the Philadelphia based Partners for Sacred Places to note ... Read More
In 1960’s a hundred year old complex near downtown San Antonio was in severe disrepair. The Urusline Order of nuns who operated a girl’s school on the property was moving away to a new campus. What would be next for the old buildings was unknown. Enter the Conservation Society who purchased most of the property in 1971 and facilitated the beginning of a multi-phased restoration program. A ... Read More
Some landmark churches have been adapting and adjusting to new uses for decades. The Church of the Holy Communion in the Flatiron District is so important, in 1966, it was added New York City’s landmark registry within the first year of the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s existence. But ten years later, it was no longer place of worship. The former Holy Communion Church as the Limelight ... Read More
Across from Manhattan, at the entrance to the Williamsburg Bridge, a remarkable landmark is finally given historic designation by the City of New York’s Landmarks Preservation Commission. The building is currently the home for an established congregation, but it was built as for a bank and for decades housed a courtroom. This is a textbook example of successful adaptive reuse. Google Maps image ... Read More
Many old churches have been given new lives when they are no longer needed for worship. A closed church in Buffalo has recently been reopened to continue serve in ministry, but in a completely new way. The old church is now a health clinic serving the refugee community. The Buffalo News noted that when the Nativity of Blessed Virgin Mary Church opened in 1898, its mission was to serve the surge ... Read More
