Category Archive: Religious Properties
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Historic church closes its doors forever
By Megan McCloskey
TRIBUNE REVIEW
Tuesday, December 7, 2004The statue of the Virgin Mary still sits atop the hill where generations of Croatians have prayed in the grotto beneath her, but it has been almost a month since worshipers last attended Mass in their historic church.
Despite parishioners’ fight to save the building from the wrecking ball, the St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church building on Route 28 will close permanently today.The 100-year-old church needs repairs the parish cannot afford and has been closed since mid-November because of a boiler leaking carbon monoxide, said the Rev. Ron Lengwin, spokesman for the Diocese of Pittsburgh.
Robert Sladack, who has been attending the church for 70 years, said he is heartbroken. Sladack was baptized, schooled and married at the East Ohio Street church.
“I was hoping to have my funeral there,” he said.
The Rev. Gabriel Badurina, pastor of St. Nicholas parish, said he understood parishioners’ feelings of loss and pain, “but life has to move on.” The parish has two churches. The other is in Millvale.
The St. Nicholas parish is not alone in that sentiment.
Two other parishes this year have had to look at consolidating buildings, joining 17 others that have done so since 1994.
Good Samaritan Parish in Ambridge closed three of its four buildings this fall. St. John Vianney Parish, which encompasses several south Pittsburgh neighborhoods, has sent a proposal to Bishop Donald Wuerl for approval to do the same thing.
From 1988 to 1994, 48 church buildings closed during Wuerl’s reorganization and revitalization plan that was aimed at adjusting the diocese to better fit the changing demographics of Catholics in Pittsburgh, Lengwin said.
Many of the Catholic churches in Pittsburgh had been formed by European immigrants who came to the city to work the coal mines and steel mills. Croatians settled in the North Side and founded St. Nicholas, the first Croatian Catholic church in North America.
Keeping the church open is “extremely important” to keeping Croatian traditions alive in Pittsburgh, Sladack said. He is co-chairman on the Preserve Croatian Heritage Foundation, formed after the parish voted in 2000 to close the building.
“We are not giving up the fight,” Sladack said.
However, the diocese said closing the church is a way to preserve a Croatian heritage that is dwindling along with the numbers of parishioners. With the consolidation, Lengwin said, the 400 members of the two-church parish — which had 900 members in 1994 — can go to Mass together in Millvale. Badurina also will increase the number of Masses celebrated in the Croatian tongue to one a week, up from one a month, Lengwin said.
Both churches were recommended for closure during the diocese’s reorganization plan, but Wuerl wouldn’t let that happen because of the need for preserving Croatian culture, Lengwin said.
“These are not easy decisions to make,” he said. “Everyone’s been given time to see if there was a solution to this problem.”
Members of the foundation said they don’t think their proposals to save the church were given adequate consideration by the pastor or the diocese.
“They just wanted to close the church,” said Jack Schmitt, a board member with both the foundation and Pittsburgh Preservation.
Both groups lobbied successfully to get the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to reconsider its plans to widen Route 28, two of which included razing the church.
After the East Ohio Street building earned a historical designation by the city, the Catholic Diocese successfully lobbied to have churches excluded from any further landmark designations, said Cathy McCollom, chief programs officer for the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
Megan McCloskey can be reached at mmccloskey@tribweb.com.
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Church had roots in city’s black community
By Jim Ritchie
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, March 14, 2004The Ebenezer Baptist Church in the Hill District has been a cornerstone of Pittsburgh’s black community since shortly after the Civil War.
Ebenezer Baptist, the first black Baptist congregation in Western Pennsylvania to own a church building, has been a driving force in the nation’s civil right’s movement.
“It’s hard for me to think of a church more significant in the African-American community,” said Arthur Ziegler Jr., president of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
Ebenezer Baptist dates to 1875 when the congregation was formed. The congregation bought a church from the Presbyterians in 1906, and moved about 1930 to the current site at 2001 Wylie Ave.
Its role in the civil rights movement was highlighted by its hosting of the National Urban League’s annual conference in 1932. Later, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made his first visit.
It was the site of other firsts, too. In 1923, it started using a bus, called the gospel wagon, to drive church members with physical limitations to services — the first black church to do so in the nation, according to Manford Sales, the church’s senior deacon.
Sales says it also was the first black church to install an elevator. That came in 1965.
“Our church is important,” he said. “We’ve only had 10 ministers there.”
The church survived a fire in January 1976 that caused $300,000 in damage to the building, just three years after the Rev. Dr. J. Van Alfred Winsett, the current pastor, arrived at Ebenezer Baptist.
In one way or another, the church has touched many lives.
“My dad went to Ebenezer Baptist and used to sing in the choir over there,” said Tim Stevens, the president of the NAACP Pittsburgh Branch. “When I saw the fire (Saturday) morning, the first thing I thought of was my dad.”
Today, the church operates an 11-story senior high-rise, a $5.4 million building with 101 apartments. It also operates its own personal care home and a million dollar Christian life center.
The church is the main meeting spot for numerous community programs, including Head Start, Alcoholics Anonymous, and all scouting groups.
It has a choir, ministers to prisoners, helps students obtain scholarships and learn with the help of mentors. Each year, it reaches out to youngsters through an 11-week summer academy.
“That church was used by so many people,” said Winsett, the church’s senior pastor.
Winsett is heard weekly on Christian radio stations WGBN, Pittsburgh, and WDIG in Steubenville, Ohio. A new sound and video system was installed recently in the church to display scriptures, highlight points in the preacher’s sermon and show announcements.
Today was to be its unveiling.
Clutching her daughter, Deborah Tyler of Garfield stood, crying, watching the embers of the roof spiral into the place where the new video system once stood.
“I had to come and say goodbye to Ebenezer,” she said. “I’m so distraught. This church is, was, so special to all of us. My daughter goes here. Her daughters would’ve gone to church here, too.”
Ebenezer Baptist Church
Important dates in the church’s history:
Church building built by Presbyterians in 1873.
Ebenezer congregation formed in 1875.
Ebenezer Baptist bought a church in 1906.
Host of the National Urban League conference in 1932.
Dr. J. Van Alfred Winsett becomes pastor in 1973.
Fire damages church in 1975, causing $300,000 in damage. Later restored.
Designated historic landmark in 1979.
Sources: Church members and historyStaff writer Vince Guerrieri also contributed to this story.
Jim Ritchie can be reached at jritchie@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7933.
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Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation Announces New Program For Historic Religious Institutions
Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation has recently launched a new program in association with its existing Historic Religious Properties Program.
New Dollars/New Partners, is a training program created by Partners for Sacred Places, a Philadelphia-based national nonprofit and non-sectarian center devoted to the stewardship of historic religious properties.
Funding support for the training program came from Landmarks members, trustees and the parishioners of nine area congregations. The first of four day long training programs was held February 2 nd at First Baptist Church in Oakland.
The programs are designed to give congregations the skills and resources needed to determine the Òpublic value Ò of their historic religious properties, assess the condition of their buildings, interpret congregational history, develop new partnerships, and a case for capital support, plus identify perspective partners and funders in a larger community.
Staff members from Partners as well as Landmarks presented the first session at First Baptist Church. The nine participating churches are:
Allegheny Unitarian Universalist Church, North Side
Bethel Presbyterian Church, Bethel Park
Calvary United Methodist Church, North Side
Calvert Memorial Church, Etna
Emmanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church, Castle Shannon
First Baptist Church of Pittsburgh, Oakland
Mulberry Presbyterian Church, Wilkinsburg
St. Andrew Lutheran Church, Shadyside
Zion Christian Church, Carrick
The next training session is scheduled for April 19 th . Landmarks staff will work closely with each of these congregations to prioritize their building needs, determine their community value, and communicate with their congregations this program.The New Dollars/New Partners training supplements Landmarks’ existing Historic Religious Properties grants program. Grant applications are available to religious institutions with historic buildings located in Allegheny County and offering community services as well as religious services. Grants are awarded annually in amounts varying from $1,000 to $10,000 and to date over 80 churches have received over $400,000 for restoration projects related to their historic building.
Arthur P. Ziegler, Jr., President of Landmarks said,
“The New Dollars/New Partners Program is a tremendous opportunity to instruct congregations on the significance of the value, not only of their buildings, but of the programs they offer to the community. Research shows that 80% of the people passing through the doors of any given church or synagogue are not members of the congregation, but are accessing the church for community services. This program will teach the churches to communicate this value to the community and enlarge the scope of funding opportunities for their institution.”
Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation was founded in 1964 as a non-profit preservation organization serving Allegheny County. Its purpose is to identify and preserve architectural landmarks, historic neighborhoods, and historic designed landscapes in Allegheny County and to educate people about this region’s architectural heritage and urban and landscape design history.
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Calvert Church in Etna receives grant for work
By Tawnya Panizzi
Staff writer
Thursday, January 8, 2004ETNA: A mammoth red door installed Monday at Calvert Memorial Church is a symbol of continued outreach for Pastor Cynthia Jackson.
The steel door, erected at the church basement, leads into the Bread of Life Food Bank — a volunteer organization that has grown over the past year from serving 25 to 155 families each month.
It was that commitment to community service that helped earn the church a $5,000 grant from the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation (PHLF) to purchase the new door, which fits with the landmark’s mission of preserving old structures.
The church was one of 16 sites throughout Allegheny County chosen to receive a 2003 Historic Religious Properties grant.
“The metal door is just what we needed to be up to code,” Jackson said. “It is important that the church building be maintained so the mission of the church can continue.”
Founded in 1964, the PHLF is a nonprofit historic preservation group that identifies and preserves buildings, neighborhoods and landscapes of the county. The grant program, in its eighth year, assists properties that are architecturally significant and that provide social services in the neighborhood. For example, Calvert Memorial’s food pantry serves underprivileged residents with donations received from eight local parishes in the Lower Valley.
The grant program is funded by year-end gifts from landmarks members and trustees and the money is used for projects like restoring stained glass, roof repair, painting, and restoration of a church dome. Technical assistance also is provided to establish preventative maintenance programs.
Selected from among 34 applicants, this is the second consecutive grant for Calvert Memorial.
Cathy McCollom, Landmarks Director of Operations and Marketing, said the church fits hand-in-hand with the mission of the grant program.
“The quality of the construction and its historic significance are what we look at,” she said of the 94-year-old building.
“It is our goal, not necessarily to offer money to churches, but those housed in significant buildings.”
McCollom also lauded the church for providing an impressive host of services for the community members — despite dwindling membership.
“Seventy percent of people who go through church doors are not members of the congregation,” McCollom said. “They are there for after-school activities, a food pantry, exercise classes.”
With membership slipping from about 80 to 50 members over the past few years, Jackson refuses to allow the church to slip away as well, she said. It has become a reliable source of services for an increasing number of residents, by offering everything from a summer reading program and job link center to tutoring and computer classes.
“While the church membership has decreased, the number of people we’re serving has increased,” Jackson said. “If the church doesn’t care about needs of people in Etna who are living in poverty, I don’t know who else is going to.”
Tawnya Panizzi can be reached at tpanizzi@tribweb.com or (412) 782-2192.
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History & Landmarks Foundation Makes Historic Religious Properties Grants
By Ron DaParma
TRIBUNE-REVIEW REAL ESTATE WRITER
Sunday, November 16, 2003Sixteen churches and a synagogue in Pittsburgh and in suburban communities and have received 2003 Historic Religious Properties Grants and Technical Assistance Awards from the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation.
The program, now in its eighth year, is designed to help architecturally significant properties that provide social services to their neighborhoods, have viable congregations and can match the grant.
Grants, which range from $1,000 to $5,000, are to be used for architectural restoration projects. Examples of the work include repairing and restoring stained glass, roof repair, exterior painting, and in one case, the restoration of a church dome.
Technical assistance is directed to assisting congregations in prioritizing restoration projects and establishing preventative maintenance programs.
The program is funded by year-end gifts from Landmarks members and trustees and from general funds budgeted by the foundation.
In Pittsburgh, those receiving grants are: Allegheny Unitarian Universalist Church and Calvary United Methodist Church, North Side; Bellefield Presbyterian Church and First Baptist Church of Pittsburgh, Oakland; Epiphany Church and the Wesley Center A.M.E. Zion Church, Hill District; First United Methodist Church of Pittsburgh, Shadyside; Our Lady of the Angels Parish (St. Augustine), Arsenal; Paole Zedeck Congregation, Squirrel Hill; Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, downtown; and Valley View Presbyterian Church, East Liberty.
Suburban awardees are Calvert Memorial Presbyterian Church, Etna; Emmanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church, Castle Shannon; First English Lutheran Church of Sharpsburg, Sharpsburg; Old St. Luke’s, Scott Township; St. Nicholas Orthodox Church, McKees Rocks; and Zion Christian Church, Carrick.
Ron DaParma can be reached at rdaparma@tribweb.com or 412-320-7907.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review © Pittsburgh Tribune Review
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Windows to the spirit
By Kellie B. Gormly
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, October 28, 2003When the Rev. Ron Fleming strolls through his sanctuary at Mifflin Avenue Methodist Church, his 1924 stained-glass display of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane sparkles like a brilliant kaleidoscope in the afternoon sun.
“When the afternoon sun comes through, it is just spectacular. It lights the whole sanctuary,” says Fleming, 52, pastor of the congregation of about 400 members in Wilkinsburg. He says he is reminded of the center of his Christian faith as he views the pre-crucifixion garden display and the towering stained-glass resurrection scene, which looms to the right of the pulpit as he preaches.This church’s opalescent works by J. Horace Rudy, a stained-glass wizard from 1890s Pittsburgh, are among four displays featured on Sunday’s Stained Glass Masterpieces 1890-1930 bus tour. The three-hour tour — sponsored jointly by the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation and the University of Pittsburgh’s Learning Solutions program as part of their regular city architectural tours — will escort participants to the four landmark buildings that contain some of the city’s ornamental and stained-glass crowning glories.
Al Tannler, historical collections director for the foundation, will conduct the tour and explain the history behind the sparkle of the stained-glass windows — but all people have to do, he says, is come and look to appreciate the creations.
“Anything I can say to these people is nothing compared to what they’re going to see,” he says. “These are real buildings and real places.
“(Stained glass) is a living art because of the way the light affects the colors and the shapes and what you see.”
Tannler’s tour has another stop in Wilkinsburg: St. James Roman Catholic Church, which has glass works from Boston artist Harry Wright Goodhue and The D’Ascenzo Studios in Philadelphia. The other two churches are in Shadyside: Calvary Episcopal Church, which has glass from several artists including Charles J. Connick of Boston, and First United Methodist Church, whose glass artists are Ford and Brooks of Boston and Edward P. Sperry of Tiffany Glass & Decorating Co. in New York.
Connick, who grew up in Pittsburgh and created the Heinz Chapel glass, recalled “the radiant splendors that struck me dumb” when he first entered Rudy’s stained glass studio in 1894, Tannler says.
Rudy and Connick are examples of brilliant opalescent glass artists from Pittsburgh, where some of the best glass from the time was made, Tannler says.
“People tend to not realize that what they have in their back yard is good and is of value,” he says. “(Stained glass) is really important stuff.”
Fleming has a similar feeling of awe about Rudy’s work, almost 80 years later.
“The hours and meticulous nature of this just amazes me,” he says, running his hand over the aging but still shining glass.
Sparkling, historical glass displays not only have a significant role in the city’s past, but they provide delightful eye candy, Tannler says.
“This is a very vibrant medium. It’s not static,” he says. “You’re not looking at something that is just on the wall; you’re looking at something that interacts with the light and changes. It really is showing how two generations used this ancient product of sand and ash colored by minerals and created this extraordinary artwork.”
Kellie B. Gormly can be reached at kgormly@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7824.
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New designs for Route 28 gains support – Proposals would spare church, industrial park
By Joe Grata,
Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Thursday, July 17, 2003Alternative designs initiated by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation only six months ago appear to be gaining support for the eventual reconstruction of a two-mile stretch of Route 28 between the North Side and Millvale.
Both options would save St. Nicholas Church, the first Croatian Roman Catholic Church in the United States, although the Pittsburgh Catholic Diocese wants to close it, and Millvale Industrial Park, although the owner wants to get rid of it.
Historic preservation groups are rallying around the two sites along the dangerous, congested highway.
At a PennDOT-sponsored open house at the Boathouse on Washington’s Landing yesterday, many of the 300 people who turned out to look at plans and meet with engineers appeared to favor “Alternative 6,” which proposes to rebuild Route 28 essentially where it is, rather than “Alternative 5,” which would place six lanes of traffic on a 30-foot overpass only a flying hubcap away from the stained-glass “rose window” above St. Nicholas’ main entrance.
“No. 6 is a superb plan,” said Jack Schmitt, chairman of the Religious Structures Committee of Preservation Pittsburgh, who said new access and parking would enable the church’s dwindling congregation to grow. “It saves the church, preserves the green hillside and is cheaper” by $40 million.
No. 6 could be even cheaper if it were up to Andrew A. Lang Jr., owner of Millvale Industrial Park, home to a dozen small businesses.
Historic groups want to save that site because one of the buildings housed a brewery in the 19th century.
“There’s nothing historic about it,” Lang said of the building, which is now mostly a warehouse. “It’s been altered and remodeled 15 times. You’d never know a brewery ever existed there. Why does someone else have an interest in saving my place when I don’t?”
Tom Fox, PennDOT District 11 assistant executive for design, said while he may be inclined to accommodate Lang’s wish, federal laws require PennDOT to prove there’s no prudent and feasible alternative to buying and demolishing a historic structure, even though it might cost $20 million to save the one Lang owns.
Plans to rebuild the two miles of Route 28, known as the “death stretch” because of its accident history, have languished for years.
The highway, an extension of East Ohio Street past the Del Monte/Heinz plant, is a narrow four lanes with no divider or shoulders. Traffic bogs down at signals at the 31st and 40th street bridges.
PennDOT proposes spending $160 million to $200 million to reconstruct the stretch, although the timetable does not call for construction to begin before 2008.
Until six months ago, PennDOT’s design options would have eliminated St. Nicholas Church and Millvale Industrial Park and dislocated about 80 households, including some on Eggers Street atop Troy Hill. The plans would have meant constructing up to 20 miles of retaining walls over the two-mile stretch to shoehorn a limited-access expressway between the steep hillside on one side and Norfolk Southern Railway tracks on the other.
Fox credited George White, a retired civil engineering professor who is with the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, for coming up with new ideas that have since been modified to conform to the terrain and geometry at the two bridge intersections.
“My take on [the open house] is that the people favor Alternatives 5 and 6,” Fox said. “We’ll study the comments and recommend a final alternative for the draft environmental impact statement and hold a public hearing on it early next year.”
Nos. 5 and 6 would provide nonstop traffic flow on Route 28, as did the earlier plans, although the speed limit with No. 6 would be 40 mph and the horizontal profile would be narrow: a 5-foot sidewalk in front of St. Nicholas, a 2 1/2-foot-wide curb, two 12-foot southbound lanes, a concrete divider, two 12-foot northbound lanes and another 2 1/2-foot-wide curb.
Fox said accidents and breakdowns would stop traffic, as opposed to Alternative 5, which provides 10-foot-wide shoulders in each direction by elevating parts of the highway toward the river, over the railroad line.
White said special legislation could permit PennDOT to acquire half of the 52-foot-wide railroad right of way and build No. 6 as a first-class transportation facility at the present elevation, increasing the frontage at St. Nicholas and keeping the hillside in its natural state.
White said train traffic is so infrequent that Norfolk Southern does not need all of the four tracks passing through the site.
One more entity is planning to weigh in on PennDOT’s plans — the Riverlife Task Force, a group promoting preservation and controlled development along the city’s river corridors.
Attorney Ted McConnell of Kirkpartrick & Lockhart, a Downtown law firm that advises the task force, was at the open house, examining a total of 11 options that were posted on easels around the room.
“We’re concerned about the hillside, the visual impacts and the community impacts of what PennDOT plans to do,” he said. “We’re looking at the alternatives and determining if there are some appropriate mitigation measures that we can recommend.”
Joe Grata can be reached at jgrata@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1985.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. © Pittsburgh Post Gazette
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Groups welcome Route 28 options
By Jim Ritchie
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, July 17, 2003PennDOT won’t decide until early 2004 whether to rebuild Route 28 through the St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Church or around the Pittsburgh-designated historic building.
Those who want to spare the church are happy now that PennDOT is considering two new ways of improving a 2-mile stretch of Route 28 from Millvale to Pittsburgh that would spare the building, in addition to two other plans that would require tearing down or moving the church.
“This is what we have been striving for,” said Robert Sladack, who co-chairs the Preserve Croatian Heritage Foundation that has been fighting to preserve the church, the first Croatian Catholic church in the United States. “Now, there is some light at the end of the tunnel.”
PennDOT hosted an open house Wednesday evening at the Three Rivers Rowing Association Boat House, on Washington’s Landing, putting two new concepts on display that would preserve the church. PennDOT now will select one of four proposals and intends to begin construction in 2008.
More than 100 people turned out for the open house.
“It’s difficult,” said Tom Fox, the assistant district engineer at PennDOT’s Allegheny County-based District 11 office. “I plan to sit down and look at what everybody said here tonight.”
The fate of the church situated just feet from the southern end of Route 28, also called the Allegheny Valley Expressway, has been the subject of a heated dispute. Early designs put the new road through the church property, which upset church members and preservationists.
The dispute prompted PennDOT to develop two concepts that spare the church by using elevated lanes.
Of equal concern are the 60,000 motorists who drive Route 28 daily. The project, which is estimated to cost between $140 million and $200 million, would eliminate the traffic signal intersections at the 31st Street and 40th Street bridges that are choke points.
By the time work begins in 2008, PennDOT intends to have finished building a direct connection between Route 28 and Interstate 279, Fox said. He wants construction on the link to begin in about three years.
Those fighting to save the church feel they’re now on the same page as PennDOT.
“We commend PennDOT for their creative solution to Route 28 improvements, their willingness to have open, public discussion and their sensitivity in saving our local heritage,” said a statement from Preservation Pittsburgh.
Aside from the church, there are some residential concerns, especially for people who live in Troy Hill atop the hillside adjacent to Route 28.
“My concern is if my house is going to be impacted by this,” Rita Steinmetz said. “My other concern is the stability of the hillside and the possible noise effects.”
The owner of the Millvale Industrial Park, which sits along Route 28, is unhappy that the two new PennDOT options would spare his 6-acre property, which is home to 12 businesses. Andrew Lang wants PennDOT to buy his property when the stretch of Route 28 is rebuilt.
“I want them to take the building,” Lang said.
Jim Ritchie can be reached at jritchie@tribweb.com or (412) 320-7933.
This article appeared in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review © Pittsburgh Tribune Review