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Mayor seeks old chapel's redemption

Developers plan to ask today for city approval to build condominiums on the site of Calvary Baptist's 1926 chapel.

By AARON SHAROCKMAN
Published August 16, 2005

	[Times photo: Douglas R. Clifford]
	Church facility worker Augusto Negron walks through Calvary Baptist Church's original 1926 chapel in downtown Clearwater on Monday. Mayor Frank Hibbard advocates moving the chapel, shown at left in 1937, to Cleveland Street and using it as a performing arts center.

CLEARWATER - Mayor Frank Hibbard renewed calls Monday to refit the 1926 Calvary Baptist chapel into a performing arts center - an opportunity, he says, to spare a remnant of city history while propelling plans to re-establish Clearwater's downtown area.

The mayor, a member of Calvary Baptist, said the city needs a cultural component to add to its sleepy urban center.

He sought the support of fellow City Council members Monday, a day before developers ask for city approval to replace the church buildings with a 25-story condominium tower called Water's Edge. Calvary members are building a new campus in east Clearwater.

"There's a window of opportunity ... and it's closing," Hibbard said.

It would cost an estimated $1.5-million to relocate the 90-by-120-foot chapel, which is part of the larger church. That does not include renovation expenses.

The building then could be repositioned next to the Harborview Center on a part of Cleveland Street scheduled to be removed when the new Clearwater Memorial Causeway bridge is opened, Hibbard said.

"We build new rec centers for $3.5-million," said Hibbard, who asked local architect Steve Fowler to examine drawings. "We could not reproduce a building like this. The cost would be astronomical."

Topped by an expansive octagonal dome, the tan-brick chapel is one of the city's more distinctive architectural landmarks, along with the downtown post office.

Inside, the dome is detailed with carved notches, visible from the floor 80 feet below. Bouquets of lilies fill three 12-foot wide stained glass windows around the balcony. Silver pipes from an organ flank the raised altar.

It's intimate compared to the boxy addition built more than a decade ago further down the bluff. Still, the chapel seated more than 1,000 people at one time.

[Last modified August 16, 2005, 01:29:18]