The House of Deliverance Pentecostal Church in Hyde Park basically wants to tear down buildings on two city blocks to build a 3-phase project that will take seven years to complete. While the church has noble intentions their thinking is flawed, basically the urban renewal way of thinking – we need to tear it all down so we can improve people’s lives. This is a follow-up to the previous posting on this site.
I spent 3 hours Monday evening attending the St. Louis Preservation Board hearing. They had a large agenda and had already heard a few items in the first hour of the meeting before I arrived. When we finally got to these eight items I began typing notes (on my Mac) as the speakers presented their case. I wasn’t able to get any exact quotes but I got the gist of it down.
First, some background:
• I lived for a few years in the Old North St. Louis neighborhood – a historic neighborhood adjacent to the Hyde Park Historic District.
• I also worked, for about five years, in North St. Louis. I have bike commuted to my office at Union & I-70 from my home in Dutchtown – a total of about 2,000 miles in one year.
• The properties in question are located between the Grand Water Tower and the Bissel Water Tower – both stunning.
• The properties are in the 3rd Ward – Alderman Freeman Bosley Sr.
• Seven of the eight properties were built between 1890-1910, the eight was built in the mid-twenties.
• The church bought the current church building in the late 1960s.
• They submitted a preliminary site plan & elevation to the staff prior to the meeting – Kate Shea, Director of Cultural Resources, said neither would meet the Historic District standards for new construction.
OK, here we go…
Pastor Jesse Battle was a very good speaker – much as you’d expect a Pastor to be. I have no doubt he and his followers sincerely believe what they are doing is the right thing. Based on my education & experience I sincerely believe they are misguided. Unfortunately, I don’t think they can be convinced otherwise.
Pastor Battle made an excellent point early in his comments. That St. Louis University is basically able to tear down many buildings to create a campus effect – why couldn’t they. A member of the Board indicated much of SLU is not in a historic district which is really unfortunate but that will have to be left for another day.
Again, I am paraphrasing Pastor Battle – not quoting (except for what is shown in quotes). Below is a summary of his points for razing eight properties on two city blocks – it is quite lengthy but I want you to understand their full argument:
• All properties are owned by the church
• For 15 years the long-term plan was to raze this buildings and construct a new facility
• All/most buildings in the city and county have some historic element to them so by this standard nothing could be torn down
• This is a “naive” way of dealing with life & growth
• The buildings are not being used – they are mostly vacant
• Pad locks & chains don’t keep the drug dealers out – the locks get cut and then we put more back on
• The buildings look good because they are brick but inside they are “hell holes” and are “despicable”
• Best use is to tear down
• Purpose of the church is to serve the community
• They want to build a community center & gym for the community
• They are working on developing the architectural drawings now – have been working for a year.
• They serve the community which is black & poor
• They must accommodate cars – new plan would provide parking for 113 cars.
• Phase II would construct a community center with meeting & craft rooms
• Phase III would build a full service community gym
• These would not be just for the church but for the neighborhood
• No question – their mission is to serve the community
• They seek to elevate the community
• More than 50% of the area residents are either unemployed or under-employed
• Area residents can’t afford things other can – like a membership to Bally’s
• Only thing the residents can do is congregate which results in crime, and killings
• The church wants to stem recurring events in community
• You can’t compare the value of the buildings to what they save [lives]
• This a “desolate” and “dark” North St. Louis community
• Plan to spend $6-$8 million dollars, church members have contributed large sums of money
• The community is otherwise disenfranchised
• The church has worked with the architect over the last year but have not liked the renderings he has given them, now they are ready to go
• The Board/City’s only interest is bricks & mortar – no regard for life, conditions of those lives
• Phase I – new church – to begin as soon as they have a green light
• They have half of the $4 million needed for that – balance will be loaned by Bank of America
• They plan start Phase II, the community center, in three years
• Phase III, the gym, would either start or finish four years later. A seven year total time frame was mentioned
• They have considered relocating to North St. Louis County – as many black churches have done
• The City has run many black churches out of the city because they couldn’t expand
• Historically 70% of the membership lived in the area
• Because they’ve gotten better educated they make more money and can move to better homes in St. Louis & St. Charles Counties.
• Roughly 40-50% of the church members live in the neighborhood
• The church has assisted the community so they can live better
• Everybody wants to move out – it is not a good place to live
Their architect, Bill Watkins, spoke next – they were the only two present to speak in favor of the project:
• Existing church building is roughly 8,500sf and seats 200
• Proposed church would have 24,000sf and seat 750
• No work has been done on proposals for the community center or gym
I spoke next – I was the only other person in the audience. I’m not going to bore you with a long list of my points but basically I said the church had good intentions but was misguided. I said the idea of tearing down the neighborhood to save the neighborhood concept doesn’t work – that Pruitt-Igoe (the housing project) failed because of that way of thinking. I compared the church to Home Depot – they are the big box of churches surrounded by parking. I mentioned (and showed) that I was reading Jane Jacobs’ ‘Death and Life of Great American Cities’ and several of the board members nodded their understanding. I told them I felt the church had a great disdain for the neighborhood based on the Pastor’s comments.
The Pastor was upset and questioned my credentials to speak on their project – that he didn’t know me or where I came from. The city attorney for the Preservation Board, Matt Moak, explained that as a citizen I have a right to speak. A board member moved to uphold the staff recommendation of denial on all eight permits and another seconded the motion. Then the recording equipment failed. After about five minutes of trying to get the equipment working I decided to quietly step out – the last thing I wanted was an angry Pastor riding down the elevator with me. Based on their discussion before the equipment failure, I’m sure the board will deny the request.
The real tragedy here is you’ve got good people wanting to spend their hard earned cash on doing good deeds – but we all can’t agree on the best method. I’d like to see them spread their wealth around several smaller churches and make the community feel proud of their homes – not ways to flee. Churches, like retail stores, believe bigger is better and that drawing folks in from far away by car is beneficial to the area in which it is located. A massive church with equally massive parking lot just doesn’t belong within the City of St. Louis. We’ve got some great old churches in town – many vacant and some are quite large. With all the vacant land in North St. Louis it doesn’t seem prudent to raze viable structures.
Hopefully they can see the error of their ways and focus their energies & money in a more urban fashion. If not, I’ll see them at the Planning Commission meeting where they will likely appeal this denial. [note: I just confirmed the Preservation Board upheld the staff recommendation to deny the demoiltion request, 11/23/04, 9am]
I was unable to locate a website for the church but here is there information:
House of Deliverance Pentecostal Church
1524 East Grand Boulevard, Saint Louis, MO 63107
(314) 533-3566
Further Reading for those still interested…
• Cultural Resources website
• Cultural Resources Preservation policies
• ‘A Preservation Plan for St. Louis’
• Title 24 of the city code relating to Cultural Resources
• St. Louis Five Year Consolidated Strategy – Hyde Park
• Hyde Park neighborhood info
• Info on “College Hill” area within Hyde Park Historic District