Historic preservation
groups are fighting to save a 1914 church at the northeast corner of Washington Street and German Church Road in Cumberland.
The congregation of St. John United Church of Christ has been working on plans to build a new church on Carroll Road and struck
a deal to sell the old one to a developer. The plans are rumored to include demolition to make way for a CVS store. (There's
a Walgreens across the street.)
But the Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana applied to the Indianapolis Historic
Preservation Commission earlier this month seeking emergency designation of the building to save it. The church,
historically known as Deutsche Evangelische-St Johannes Kirche, was built at a cost of $30,000 in the Tudor
Gothic Revival style and features "extraordinary" stained glass windows. The IHPC granted the
request, and the Metropolitan Development Commission will take up the issue on Nov. 4.
The shrinking
congregation of about 366 members can no longer to afford maintenance and renovations needed on the building,
an estimated $1.3 million over the next 10 years, said board member Larry Miller. Selling the parcel would
give the church an opportunity to add desperately needed child-care and other facilities to attract a younger
membership base, he said. About 85 percent of the congregation is over 65. Members are upset that people
with no stake in the church's future are trying to block the sale and redevelopment of the property. "We
feel like we're being picked on," Miller said.
UPDATE: The MDC opted to continue
the hearing until Dec. 2 after church officials agreed to hold off on applying for demolition permits.
Welcome to Property Lines, a place to feed your appetite for conversation about real estate in Indianapolis. I'm your host,
Cory Schouten,
IBJ's real estate beat reporter.
Historic namesake for German Church Road facing demolition
October 29, 2009
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I've been going there since i was a teenager, I'm 62 now. It's sad to see how someone can come in and try to steal the image and name so easily. But your not dealing with rational thinking people, with old American values.I can find another favorite place to eat !!!
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it a bit more difficult to apply zoning and other standards to churches and other religious institutions. I don't know enough
about such statutes to speculate whether they would apply, but itâ??s an angle worth considering.
I sympathize with the church and with the challenges of dealing with a shrinking and aging congregation, but my goodness.
How many newer congregations would love to have a building like this, but canâ??t because such craftsmanship is now so expensive?
I'm sure it's not an easy choice. The only way the church can take advantage of its most valuable asset is by destroying
its most priceless asset. Still, one must wonder if this isn't a shortsighted move. In ten years, this probably still
will be an aging and shrinking congregation, but will be worshiping in a charmless quonset hut in a cornfield.
Oh and darn it if there's two pharmacies in the area! They'll both have to compete for business. That whole competition thing is so overrated! It's waaaaay better when the Govt gets involved!
In response to the pendleton-pike comment I just want to say that I'm a big fan of new urbanist ideals of development and re-use/redevelopment. I think, where appropriate, planning should set the bar and vision high. I'm also of the opinion that it's up to the citizenry to elect officials that carry out that vision if that's what is desired in a given municipality.
What I'm NOT a fan of is a quasi-govt group arbitrarily slapping property owners with use controls and limitations prior to a sale. Just deciding that a corner with high value as commercial should be a church forever because it has been in the past is ridiculous.
If it were my town I'd say let them sell but make sure the CVS or any other buiding conforms to newer development standards. For example, require CVS to be two stories and closer to the street.
Oh, and Josh; that's just my opinion.
The MDC - which could stop this if they wanted to by refusing to rezone - will willingly cave in in the name of "development".
There is no competition among drugstores, whoever mentioned that is retarded. They fix prices like crazy.