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Religion

Loft homes likely to be salvation of old church

A small congregation sells its clapboard church to a renovator who envisions apartments.

By BRADY DENNIS
Published June 24, 2005

At the corner of Kentucky and Oakdale avenues, Sunday mornings pass quietly these days.

The old white clapboard church has heard its last hymn, baptized its last child, hosted its last covered dish dinner. The faithful have closed the doors to Tampa Primitive Baptist Church and sold the property.

"Everybody's sad, we're all sad," said David Keene, 56, who lives next to the church he has attended since he was a child. "But you had to face reality."

A year ago, when the St. Petersburg Times first chronicled the church's struggles, its weekly attendance had dwindled to fewer than a dozen members. The wallpaper was peeling. The paint was chipped. The roof needed replacing, and termites were gnawing at the building's frame.

The church needed $100,000 in repairs. As much as the remaining members wanted to press on, they knew the future looked dark. Finally, they surrendered.

"We couldn't even get enough money to pay the light bill," said Al Watton, a member for more than 40 years. "Any time you lose your house of worship because you can't sustain it, it's very difficult. It takes a toll on you spiritually."

So, with heavy hearts, the congregation put the church up for sale. And that's when a little good news trickled in.

Turns out, the old church might have some life left in it yet.

In January, the church sold for $100,000, well below its market value. The buyer: Manuel Sanchez, a longtime engineer and general contractor who promised members that he would renovate the historical church.

"We wanted to preserve the building for the neighborhood," Keene said. "It's a landmark. The building means a lot to us. It's been there a lot longer than most of the houses in the neighborhood."

Sanchez has teamed with local architect John Tennison, who worked in recent years to convert a 100-year-old former Methodist church in Tampa Heights into the Sanctuary, a 34-unit apartment building.

"Tampa has very few buildings that are really, really old and worth saving," Sanchez said. "There's a lot of living in that place. It would be a shame to take it down."

So instead, he and Tennison plan to build two loft apartments inside the church's sanctuary, each about 1,800 square feet.

They also plan to build several townhouses on the 0.63-acre site, probably each about 2,000 square feet with three bedrooms and two bathrooms and designed to match the church's architecture.

Sanchez said he has no idea yet what the units might cost. He plans to approach the City Council about the project later this summer and, if possible, begin construction in the fall.

Only a handful of people showed up for the final Sunday service months ago. They sang hymns a cappella, as usual. They prayed. They let go some tears.

And then, "They just sort of got up and left," Watton said. "They were filled with emotion."

It marked the end of a long run.

Back when the building was dedicated on Feb. 22, 1948, it was a church very much alive.

It had been constructed as an Army chapel for soldiers stationed at Drew Field, now the site of Tampa International Airport, during World War II.

In 1947, workers had uprooted the chapel's framing and arches, carted it east along Buffalo Avenue, now Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, and floated it across the Hillsborough River because no bridge stood nearby at the time.

The new church drew hundreds of worshipers and became a gathering spot in the neighborhood.

Children filled Sunday school classes, and a choir sang from the balcony. But over the years, the congregation grew old, and so did the building.

The regular members have scattered, visiting other local churches or tuning into services on television.

But thanks to their resolve to save the little white church at Kentucky and Oakdale avenues, they can at least drive past and glimpse the place where they worshiped for so many years.

The place they cared enough to save.

"It's a second lease on life, for the church, for the building," Sanchez said. "Who knows, maybe 30 years from now it becomes a church again."

Brady Dennis can be reached at 226-3386 or dennis@sptimes.com

[Last modified June 23, 2005, 01:01:07]