Date of Visit: July 14, 2012

This is a Baptist Church built in 1924.  The congregation ran into financial difficulties during its construction, so the reverend called upon everyone in the church to help build it.  And they did, and they continued to reside here in this simple Greek Revival structure for nearly 80 years, until the boiler broke and the congregation decided that instead of coming up with the money to repair it, they would just move to a smaller adjacent building.  (I guess there was no longer anyone skilled in the trades to step forward and help fix the boiler?)  Over the next few years, theft and vandalism reduced its beauty, but the real knife to the gut came in 2008, when a fire destroyed most of the sanctuary.  In most urban areas in modern American cities, there isn’t much money for demolitions, so it’s been sitting there continuing to decay since then.  I’m thankful for that, because there are some amazing scenes left inside the ugly Greek revival walls of that old church.