Baltimore is a city where there seems to be a church on so many corners. As the city ages and its population has dropped, many of these structures are becoming vacant. The Baltimore Archdiocese recently announced plans to close many of the places once considered cornerstones of their communities.
So what is the fate of these buildings where infants were baptized, couples married and the dead were memorialized?
What is the fate of a Bolton Hill landmark such as Corpus Christi Roman Catholic Church, a Gothic Revival building filled with England-made stained glass windows and inset mosaic tiles? It sits on the same block as the Maryland Institute College of Art, a pair of architectural monuments given by benefactor Michael Jenkins.
It will take a while for the archdiocese to find their fate. They will continue to be used in a limited way for a while. A funeral could be held or perhaps a wedding, although regular Sunday services will disappear after the ending months of this year.
But there are other houses of worship suffering declining congregations.
The Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church is one such example. It is one of the most photographed structures in Baltimore. Standing as it does at the northeastern foot of the Washington Monument, designed with a mighty spire and clad in unusual Serpentine stone, it’s a knockout.
And it’s up for sale. There’s an open house Sunday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
The church still has a small congregation and any buyer may have to find a spot for their worship within the structure’s footprint.
There are also other issues. A closed and unattended church building invites trouble.
Religious property broker Stephen Ferrandi, who is handling the Mount Vernon Place church sale, notes that a vacant church can wind up costing money.
“People identify a building as being vacant, they plunder it and take the metal it contains to the scrap yard,” Ferrandi said. “The first thing they take are outdoor air conditioning compressors. If they get inside, there’s old … copper water piping to take and sell. If the interior copper is stripped, the repair cost will be hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“We’ve had churches where these metal strippers tore through the walls to get the pipes.”
Ferrandi identified Wesley Memorial United Methodist on Johnnycake Road and the Good Shepherd Baptist Church in Park Heights as buildings where this happened.
As a real estate broker of church structures, many of them historic or at least old with noteworthy interiors, he’s seen how time and rain can damage or destroy a structure.
On the day when the old Strawbridge United Methodist Episcopal Church in Bolton Hill was up for auction, persons attending filled the building erected in 1881. Church officials, auctioneering staff and bidders were unaware of severe structural damage caused by years of unattended water damage.
A church official fell through a rotted floor just inside the church entrance.
After years of restoration work, the old Strawbridge church is now emerging as a community space (the former nave) and nine apartments spread through the basement and the old social hall.
Strawbridge’s buyer and developer Daniel Kamenetz said, “It’s been a long process.”
Ferrandi says the easiest vacant churches to sell are those with parking on the property.
He notes there is a market among Baltimore’s ethnic communities for church properties and cites how a Burmese Roman Catholic community fought successfully to keep Our Lady of Victory Church open.
Sometimes an adjacent former parochial or large church hall can find a ready use.
Other former parochial schools — St. Mary Star of the Sea in Federal Hill is now the Saint Ignatius Loyola Academy and the old Holy Rosary School in Canton is the Christo Rey Jesuit High School. The Green School of Baltimore is housed in the former Shrine of the Little Flower School in Belair-Edison.
But will developers or new congregations want to take on old pipe organs and the upkeep of 1880-era church spires?
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