Methodist Church sold

[bex77]

College Ave. church changes hands
http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/somerville/2010/04/church_changes_hands_on_colleg.html

Comments

[ron_newman]

Wow - where will their congregation go?

I'm glad to see that the Somerville Homeless Coalition's shelter will remain there.

Since the buyer is the Haitian Bible Baptist Church, that means a second church building on College Ave. will soon be for sale as well.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, that is sad to me. Ron, I went there a couple times and the congregation was already having services in the chapel not the big building there. But in the hallway, they had a plaque for church members who were killed in WWI, if I am not mistaken. It has been there a long long while. It's a lovely building but I imagine it might be a little expensive to maintain as it ages.

[jesseh.livejournal.com]

I don't know the exact situation at that church, but most mainline Protestant congregations share their space now, as far as I know. Either with another church or with other organizations. Since mostly-white, English-speaking Protestant congregations are on the decline and others are on the rise, it only makes sense. The big old buildings are too much for smaller congregations to maintain.

[ron_newman]

When we did the Somerville History Bike Tour last spring, with a theme of "Somerville's Historic Houses of Worship", this became quite evident. The other Methodist church in Union Square has been converted to condos. Many other former Protestant churches of various sorts (as well as one former Catholic parish) had been sold to non-English-speaking ethnic congregations or were no longer used as churches.

[mzrowan.livejournal.com]

I wonder if this means that the Haitian church's current building will soon be up for sale?

[mzrowan.livejournal.com]

Whoops, didn't see that ron_newman had mentioned the same thing earlier.

[jesseh.livejournal.com]

Oh, right, so what I meant to say was (a) I think it's good news that it's another church that bought the building, and (b) they can likely share the space.

[gilana]

...isn't that where we were planning to rehearse for The Margaret Ghost?

[bex77]

Yes. The timing I heard should mean that we're still good for May and early June rehearsals, but I am checking with their admin. I am hoping we can make contacts with the new owners and continue to rent from them after they take over. They have such gorgeous theater space!

[nomacmac.livejournal.com]

Please tell me they're not covering the church in vinyl siding, like they did with the church on Morrison. The scaffolding has me very nervous now.

[wallacestreet.livejournal.com]

Do you mean the former church on Park Ave. that's home to Davis Square's first $1M condo? I agree that the vinyl siding hasn't done it any favors, but I suppose the old brick is expensive to maintain...

[ceo]

I assume he means the Haitian Bible Baptist Church's (aka Eglise Baptiste de la Bible) current building.

[ron_newman]

What church did that use to be? We missed it entirely when looking for churches (present or former) to visit on last year's History Ride.

[the-gadgetman.livejournal.com]

The scaffolding is for work on the tower.

[svilletheatre.livejournal.com]

That (on Park Ave.) was not a church (at least not in the last 1/2 century,) it was called Orange Hall. There used to be dances there once upon a time.

[wneleh.livejournal.com]

The article is slightly incorrect - the buyer is actually the Holy Bible Baptist Church. Since it's an almost-entirely-Haitain community, the leading H in their name gets mis-assigned sometimes.

The HBBC's plans for their current building are in flux.

As for where the current CAUMC will go - CAUMC owns a two-family parsonage near Powderhouse Square, and we're moving the office there. We've talked to local churches about short-term worship space. Beyond that - we really don't know. We'll be working on this over the next few weeks.

- Helen, trustee of College Ave. UMC

[wneleh.livejournal.com]

The HBBC is considering various options for their current building. PM me if you have specific questions.

- Helen

[wneleh.livejournal.com]

You're fine. We've had a timeline for the sale in mind for quite a while, and approved your usage based on this.

As for later use - I'll put in a good word for you, if you'd like. The HBBC has expressed interest in keeping the building very active. PM me if you want more info.

- Helen, wearing my church trustee hat instead of my fangirl hat on LJ

[wneleh.livejournal.com]

I've no clue what's under the Holy Bible Baptist Church's vinyl.

I have every reason to believe that the current look of the CAUMC building is part of what the HBBC is buying.

- Helen, CAUMC trustee

[wneleh.livejournal.com]

It has been there a long long while. It's a lovely building but I imagine it might be a little expensive to maintain as it ages.

Yes, it is a very expensive building to keep up. And a side effect of our small congregation is that we really don't have the expertise inhouse to do even minor work ourselves.

[wneleh.livejournal.com]

Keeping the building a church was a very high priority for us, and we only looked at other uses so as to set a reasonable price. The build currently houses the College Ave. UMC congregation; Cambridge Welcoming Ministries, "an open and affirming, progressive faith community dedicated to proclaiming God's love for all with gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and straight persons"; a Sathya Sai Baba congregation; Eagle Eye Institute, an urban-focused environmental group; a recording studio; many twelve-step and other groups; scouting; and of course the Somerville Homeless Coalition's adult shelter. And I know I'm forgetting some groups.

We've tried to keep the building as open and useful as possible. But it hasn't been enough to keep us afloat; and, personally, it's exhausting trying to juggle the needs of so many constituencies AND, well, be a church.

The HBBC has committed to keeping the shelter and, less formally, scouting. Many of the groups who use our building also are of the sort the HBBC would like to support. The logistics have yet to be worked out.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

I assume that the change in ownership can't have any effect on how the city claims polling places, and that Ward 6 Precinct 3 will continue voting there as it has in the past?

[wallacestreet.livejournal.com]

Thanks, that's interesting. It's certainly a church architecturally with the steeple and all. I wonder what it's history is before the Orange Hall. The on-line records only go back to the 1990s.

[gruene.livejournal.com]

I've heard that it used to be a Unitarian Church back in the day. I don't know much more than that though.

[gruene.livejournal.com]

The city does occasionally change its polling places. For example, 7-1 used to vote at Powder House Community School, but after it closed we stared voting in the Tufts' administration building across the way instead. Back in the day, (probably several decades ago at this point, I got the story from an old man) there used to be five precincts per ward rather than three, but at some point they consolidated, presumably to reduce costs.

However, I imagine voting will continue at the church. I don't think the city has any sort of superseding right to force Eglise Baptiste de la Bible to continue to allow them to use the space for voting, but the church should have little reason to object.

[wneleh.livejournal.com]

The Methodist congregation hasn't yet told the city about the sale; I figured we should wait until after the May 11 election.

[wneleh.livejournal.com]

I don't think the city has any sort of superseding right to force Eglise Baptiste de la Bible to continue to allow them to use the space for voting, but the church should have little reason to object.

Thanks for using the purchasing church's correct name!! I'm a hopeless monoglot, so have stuck to focusing on referring to them at least as the Holy Bible Baptist Church, not "The Haitians."

I don't know whether they'll be having as much outside usage as we have; a reason why we are all so excited about the sale is that the building will once again be used as the builders intended. I don't think the purchasing congregation knows exactly how they are going to manage the building yet.

[ron_newman]

I remember when the city had five precincts per ward, and some of those precincts were in trailers parked by the side of the street. One of those trailers was parked at the corner of Beacon and Kent streets, and I voted there several times in the 1980s. Definitely not wheelchair-accessible!

[ron_newman]

On pages 318 and 323 of a book called Somerville, past and present: an illustrated historical souvenir I find a description of "Park Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church", with a photo on page 321. It says the building was dedicated in 1883.

The building looks greatly altered over the years, having lost its steeple and also its front yard (now occupied by a brick apartment building on College Ave)

historical note

[jlauspitz.livejournal.com]

The College Avenue Methodist Church moved from its Park Street location to its current College Avenue/Chapel Street location in 1924. The Park Street premises became the Orange Hall.

On land now occupied by the Church there previously stood a house originally constructed in 1883 for Mr. Albion Huntress, a provisioner at the Quincy Market. This house was not demolished. It was split in two, and the parts (a main three-story part and a two-story servants' wing) were moved. The main section is the single family house that now stands across from the Church's Sam Walter Foss annex (#17 Chapel).

Re: historical note

[ron_newman]

Was it called Chapel Street even before there was a church on it?

[ron_newman]

Although that election won't be in your church. It's only in one precinct of Ward 1 and one of Ward 2.

Re: historical note

[jlauspitz.livejournal.com]

The name "Chapel Street" appears in the second Somerville Atlas of 1884, some forty years before the Park Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church moved to its present College Avenue location.

In looking through my files I find that Carol Zellie, who used to do landscape research for the City of Somerville, refers to the first Somerville Atlas of 1874 as not having any residential development in the immediate area of Chapel Street. By the time of the second Somerville Atlas of 1884 "Chapel Street" is named and plotted as part of the W. A. Russell Estate subdivision. But the plots show no houses on them.

In the 1884 Atlas "Elm Street" is the name of what is now "College Avenue." The house at the corner of Elm and Chapel (at #318 Elm on land to be occupied by the College Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church)is listed as belonging to C. M. Jordan, not Albion Huntress, whose name appears in other documents.

Though I live at the "Albion Huntress" house, I haven't gone beyond Carol Zellie's research. The title search for my house deed goes back only to February 1925 when the "College Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church, formerly the Park Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church" voted to put the relocated house at 17 Chapel Street up for sale. The Church had dropped the word "Episcopal" from its name by 1961, when it reauthorized the original sale to satisfy a technical legal issue.

[ron_newman]

Did they do it, or did a previous congregation do it? Before it was Église Baptiste de la Bible, it was an Assemblies of God congregation, and it's been other things before that.

Methodist Church sold

[mark-shc.livejournal.com]

hi, this is Mark from the Homeless Coalition. wanted everyone to know how considerate the Methodist Church has been to insure we can keep our Adult Shelter in the basement -- the Church made it part of the P&S. Also good news is the Baptist's Church enthusiasm for keeping us there. we are planning a meeting for next month with the Baptists and look forward to building a relationship with them.

Last night at the Armory we had our 25th anniversary dinner. I keep thinking how the Methodist Church never could imagine in 1985 that we would still be there -- but the problem of homelessness is worse now than it was then and we are grateful to the church for letting us be there for all these years. thanks, Mark

Re: historical note

[wneleh.livejournal.com]

Interesting! Thanks for posting this. I'm going to share it with the people in our congregation trying to make sure we don't lose all of our history in the transition.

[wneleh.livejournal.com]

I don't know. My impression is that it's a frame building, so presumably the vinyl is over shingles of some sort?

[wneleh.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Then maybe I'm thinking of another election? Or it could be we're just confused.

Re: Methodist Church sold

[wneleh.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the kind words, Mark!

- Helen W. (keeping my last name off of LJ, to minimize my search engine exposure)

[ron_newman]

The special election to replace Senator Galluccio is May 11, but your church isn't in the district where that election will happen. The next statewide election is the September 14 primary.

Re: historical note

[jlauspitz.livejournal.com]

The church used to display an old, faded photograph of the moving of the Huntress house across the street to make way for the new construction. It is probably somewhere in the church files.

Re: Methodist Church sold

[jlauspitz.livejournal.com]

The neighbors were an important part of the equation the brought the shelter to the Methodist basement. It will be important to renew with the new congregation the understandings that have assured cordial neighborhood relations.

[nomacmac.livejournal.com]

The vinyl is relatively new (5 yrs?) It was wood clapboards.

[ron_newman]

Helen, I posted an update about your congregation's move to East Somerville. Feel free to post comments over there if I've gotten any facts wrong or you want to add more info.

[wneleh.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the post, and the heads up!

- Helen