Does this refer to a denomination? Because if it does, I’m wondering if a certain Terry Pratchett title is actually a joke that I completely missed…
There is a United Methodist Church in the Rosslyn neighborhood of Arlington, VA (in walking distance of DC) that is above a Chevron station, or was there the last time I was there.
Anyway, denominations that treat church buildings as sanctified places may have different rules than others that treat it just as a building. E.g. a Baptist church may have no qualms with selling the old building to the school district to use as extra classrooms or selling it to a shipping company to use as a warehouse, since to them, it is just a building, and the “Church” is really the people and the building is just a place they meet at. Now Catholics (and most likely Orthodox) treat the building itself as sanctified in some way.
Hey, I live in Nashville, and I did not know that! What is the name of the club?
There was a schism in the Church of Scotland in 1843 (‘the Disruption’) and a small wing who didn’t eventually rejoin in 1900 became the Free Church of Scotland, often colloquially known as the Wee Frees. They’ve mellowed over the years but are seen as being against shops opening or people having to work on Sunday, or for ferries, etc. to run.
I’m certain Terry was well aware of this!
This one in Cleveland Heights, OH has been turned into a condo complex. if you are interested, it’s for sale!
One in Santa Barbara has been turned into a skate shop named the Church of Skatan.
I checked with my town’s Building Department. It is very easy to get the church’s use status changed to residential or commercial, and then you can turn it into what you want within the legal guidelines.
There was a church in Tucson that was turned into a nightclub about 30 years ago. It burn down. I don’t recall if it was arson or what.
This (rather small) old stone church en route to our family cottage was transformed from a church to a private home, then to an art studio over the years.
I am not at all religious but I LOVE old churches. I remember seeing that episode of ‘This Old House’ set in San Fran with that couple remodeling that church…so cool.
I’m also a huge reader. This church-bookstore is where I wanna live! Stunning.
Well, I am pretty sure that is the same building. It was The First Baptist when there was only a church, and no gas station. I was not aware that the Methodists had moved in. I wonder if the Chevron company changed from Exxon at the same time. Some sort of ecumenical decison?
Maybe Exxon is a Baptist company, and Chevron bought them out and put in their own sect in the attic!
So now my question becomes, Is it the United Methodist Exxon, or the United Exxon Methodist?
Tris
There’s one former church down the road from me that was turned into a used book store. Another was bought out by the Columbus Zoo and turned into part of their new Polar Frontier exhibit recently. It houses a conservation education display right near the polar bears.
It’s always nice to see a church turned into something useful.
(Addendum: )
- The Benny (municipal) Library in NDG is in a former church.
I should also mention cases of churches that extend their finances by permanently sharing their space without the congregation moving. A church on Ontario St. has its basement occupied by the family medicine clinic for Notre-Dame hospital. There are also cases where a single church building is used by two or more different denominations, such as Westmount Park Church. This was formerly the case at St. Clement’s Anglican church in Verdun, and now it seems that the other congregation has taken over (it’s now called Church of the Epiphany).
An ex Salvation army church turned into a villa around the corner from where I live in Stockholm: Google Maps
A posh apartment building in London: Google Maps
A restaurant in York: Google Maps
There are a number of them. One of the few buildings you can get with a high ceiling and nice architectural details for a reasonable price. They kick ass for recording drums, and usually have all sorts of side rooms for use as isolation booths. One I worked in was a former Baptist church and had this great baptismal font behind the alter that became the vocal booth - just upgraded the glass for better isolation. The control room was built in the space under the balcony.
I’m pretty sure Excalibur on Dearborn used to be a church.
The Church, my favorite club, where I spent FAR too much time in the 90s, is in a deconsecrated church.
Sometimes they take out all the pews and the people that live there just throw their garbage down there seeing how there is so much room since they took out all the pews.
Five years ago we seriously considered buying this church to convert to a house. It had a kitchen recently built on the back of the building. The rest of the church was built in 1900.
The price was close to what we could sell our current house for, and then use our equity to work on it. Oh we wanted to get in there.
The problem? It added another 60 minutes (40 minutes to the train and another 20 minutes on the train plus cost) to my commute each way. We only had the one car (because that’s all we needed) and would have to get another one. More importantly we didn’t have enough liquid savings to be able to hire contractors to make it liveable. I suspect that if we had been in the US and able to get one of those ‘no-questions-asked mortgages’ we would have jumped at it. As it was, my risk-averse frugality said no.
Cheap bastard…I’ll never forgive me for that…
Thanks! It won lots of prizes and I always take out of town guests there to see it. It has a coffee corner where you can sit, sip coffee with a book you consider buying, and look at the church and the customers (it is a thriving bookstore). It is one of my favourite haunts, too. Visit it when you are ever here!
Just don’t try to take it to the town dump on Thanksgiving Day. Seriously.