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NEW LEASE ON LIFE

Old city churches find a new following
By Larry Herold |

THEY SELL PIZZA and burgers in the sanctuary of the Luther Memorial Church. Antiques are refurbished in the baptistry of the McKinney Avenue Baptist Church, and the social room of the Tiferet Israel Temple is both home and studio to a fashion photographer. Of course, the names of these buildings have changed and the congregations have long since moved to other locations, but these and other old churches around Dallas are being put to new uses, saving the grand reminders of the past from the ravages of the bulldozer.

Several churches around town are in a state of transition. The St. James A.M.E. Church on Good-Latimer Expressway is being renovated for office space. The Churchill Way Presbyterian Church on Preston Road was recently bought by the Aerobics Institute and is slowly being converted into a research center. The Greenville Avenue Christian Church stands vacant, a victim of a zoning battle that leaves it with neither a religious nor a commercial tenant. Though the congregations of these churches have departed, the buildings often retain a sentimental value for those who worshiped there and give the rest of us a sense of history.



ELECTRICAL TRAINING CENTER



The East Dallas Presbyterian Church was built in 1904, a year before President Teddy Roosevelt made a visit to Dallas. After World War II, the Presbyterians moved on, and the Scofield Memorial Church bought the building at 1015 N. Carroll at Swiss in 1950. On Christmas Eve, 1976, a fire swept through the church, destroying most of the original sanctuary and much of the newer additions. The congregation moved to a new location and sold the building in 1977.

The buyer was the Dallas Joint Electrical Apprenticeship and Training Committee, which turned the neat brick building’s Sunday school rooms into classrooms for the Electrical Training Center. The center provides the only four-year program in Dallas for apprentice electricians who want to become licensed journeymen. The 200 students work for contractors during the day and attend night classes on electric codes, transformers and cable splicing. R.P. O’Riley, who recently retired as training director, presided over the massive renovation of the building. Many of the repairs to the walls, carpet, ceilings and fixtures were done by O’Riley and his students. During his tenure, O’Riley received numerous offers for his building but none met his price. “When Realtors called and wanted to know how much, I’d tell them: ’I’ve got a million dollars worth of blood, sweat and tears in that building,’ ” says O’Riley. “We’ll start from there.”

THE WRECKING BAR



Resembling a Greek temple as much as a Baptist church, The Wrecking Bar antique store sprawls across a corner lot at McKin-ney and Routh. The imposing structure was begun in 1904 by C.W. Bulger & Son, which also erected the spectacular Gaston Avenue Baptist Church. By 1937, the congregation had outgrown the building-most of which was dedicated to the sanctuary-and moved to Oak Lawn, changing the church’s name to Highland Baptist Church.

The building had been used to store salvage materials and to sell antique rugs when Jo McDonald-Milan bought it in 1966 to house her growing antique-furnishings business. Since then, the store, which features thousands of decorative American and European antique architectural pieces such as doors and mantles, has blossomed; the workshop now extends into the area once occupied by the church baptistry. In the basement stand 18-foot columns and even a church pew or two for sale, while the upstairs choir loft is filled with antiques. In the 18 years since she bought the church, McDonald-Milan has seen the value soar from her $65,000 purchase price to “well over $1 million.”

ARTISTS’ STUDIO



One of the most common reasons why congregations abandon their churches is a shift in the neighborhood. That, more than anything else, is the explanation for the location of the Tiferet Israel Temple in South Dallas. The building, at 2312 Grand Ave. near Highway 45, was in the middle of the Dallas Jewish community when it was built in 1938. The congregation of Tiferet Israel, which means Glory of Israel, held services there until 1955, when a shift of the Jewish population to North Dallas and the impending construction of two nearby highways spurred a move to a Hillcrest location.

The building was vacant in 1974 when it was purchased by a local sculptor, Raffaele Martini. He spent several thousand dollars repairing the damage done by vandals and turned the spacious building into a studio. In 1978, Martini split the structure into five large rooms, which today house living and working areas for photographers, actors and an architect. The sculpture in the yard was done by Martini, whose works are also displayed at a number of local colleges and universities. The only reminders of the building’s former use are some Hebrew inscriptions near the ceiling of an upstairs apartment and a pair of sliding doors which once led to the temple. They now form the door to a closet full of photographer’s supplies.

THE OLD CHURCH RESTAURANT & BAR



Although the Old Church restaurant and bar at 4501 Cole looks like the quintessential frontier church, it was actually built in 1909 as a private residence. But over the next 35 years, three congregations moved in and out of the wooden frame building, the last being the Luther Memorial Church. The congregation left in the mid-Forties, taking with it the bell that now rings a call to worship each Sunday at the First United Lutheran Church. The building served at different times as a floral shop, an electrical company and an artist’s studio, until it was bought in 1972 by then-unknown Gene Street.

Street turned the building into the Old Church, serving burgers and beer to a predominantly collegiate crowd. But business eventually waned, and three years ago, John Davis bought the building from Street. Davis, 25, who frequented the Old Church during his days at SMU, came up with the name Park Cities Country Club, but after five disappointing months, he reinstated the Old Church. “They started coming back almost overnight,” says Davis. “They said it was always the Old Church and always will be.” Davis’ menu includes “Heavenly Hamburgers,” “Saintly Side Orders” and “Praiseworthy Pizza,” which are served beneath sanctuary-type light fixtures and a stained glass window. He says he has encountered some local antagonism from older neighbors about running a bar in a former church-but not from the First United Lutheran Church. Pastor Fredrick Jacobi took four former pastors of the congregation to the Old Church for a 50th anniversary celebration. “A building is a building,” says Jacobi. “We had a joyous time.”

TRINITY METHODIST CHURCH



The Trinity Methodist Church at 2120 McKinney was the first Dallas building to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Built in 1904 for $85,000, Trinity Methodist was the masterpiece of renowned Dallas architect James E. Flanders.

The fellowship disbanded in 1974, and for the next five years the building was home to the concerts and classes of the American Institute of Musical Studies. The $3 million needed for the renovation of the building proved too much for the institute to raise, however, so the building stood vacant until December 1981 when arsonists torched it, destroying much of the interior and the roof but leaving the prairie-style exterior walls intact.

Today, the structure is owned by developer Vernon Smith Jr., whose renovation of the building into four floors of office space is under way. Contractors say that the building, which is both a Texas historic landmark and a City of Dallas landmark, should be ready for occupancy early next year. The face of the building, which stands on land first deeded by Republic of Texas President Sam Houston in 1842, will resemble the origina lstructure as closely as possible.

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