ROANOKE, Va. (AP) - Calvary Baptist Church has put its nearly century-old Campbell Avenue building on the market.
The Rev. Steven Pollard said the decision is a response to declining membership and the high cost of maintaining the building. The Roanoke church was already on this path, but he said the COVID-19 pandemic put additional strain on attendance and finances, forcing the sale.
Calvary is not alone in dealing with declining membership. Gallup found the percentage of Americans who indicated they belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque was averaging 50% in 2018. That’s a drop of 20 percentage points since 1999.
The number of adults in the United States who identify as Christians is also down. In telephone surveys done in 2018 and 2019, the Pew Research Center found that 26% of respondents described themselves as atheistic, agnostic or “nothing in particular.” In 2009, that figure stood at 17%.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, about 60 people regularly attended services at Calvary Baptist Church, Pollard said. Now the church, which has resumed in-person services, draws about half that number.
Pollard, who has served as pastor since 2015, said the sale is an emotional issue for many longtime parishioners who have an attachment to the building. He said they are still grieving the upcoming loss.
“Folks were married here, their family funerals were here, baptisms were here, some of the high points of folks’ lives are here,” he said.
But, ultimately, the cost of maintaining the building is prohibitively expensive.
“It’s just unwise use of God’s money, really, to go ahead and continue to pour it in there,” Pollard said.
The decision to move was put to a vote. Pollard said not a single person voted against the sale.
He emphasized that the church is selling its building, not closing altogether.
“We’ve kind of wrapped our heads and our hearts around the fact that the church is people, it’s us,” he said. “We want to stay together and we want to move forward.”
A LEGACY OF MUSIC AND HUGGING
Calvary Baptist Church, founded in 1891, is one of Roanoke’s oldest Baptist churches. Construction of its current Campbell Avenue building was completed in 1925, at a cost of $312,000, according to the church’s website. Calvary Baptist is perhaps best known for a longtime pastor, the Rev. Harry Gamble, who was said to have the “voice of God,” and for its strong music program.
Its holiday program, the “singing Christmas tree,” was famous in Roanoke, running for three decades. Newspaper stories at the time described the singing Christmas tree as “a 27-foot-tall steel-and-wood structure made up of a series of semicircular platforms” that became smaller as they rose to the top. The singers standing on the platforms made up the branches of a Christmas tree.
Robert McKinney began attending Calvary when he was just 5 years old. He’s been deeply involved with the church’s music program throughout his life, regularly participating in the singing Christmas tree and filling in as interim choir director. He attributes all of his musical talent to Helen Robertson, the church’s “visionary” music director.
The church’s Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ is one of its most outstanding features, McKinney said, noting it’s the same brand used by the Washington National Cathedral and the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, formerly known as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
It’s another part of Robertson’s legacy. McKinney said when the church was looking for an organ, she wouldn’t settle for anything but Aeolian-Skinner.
If the building is sold to another church or if the sanctuary is used as a performance venue, he said, members might consider leaving the organ for that purpose. Otherwise, they’ll try to place the organ elsewhere. McKinney said the instrument is too special to “end up in a landfill” and ought to be used.
He described Calvary as progressive for a Baptist church.
“They taught more about hope and salvation and not so much about hell and damnation,” he said. “It always left you feeling good. It’s one of those churches where everybody is welcome.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has been particularly hard on the church, McKinney said, given that its congregation is the hugging sort.
“Anybody that ever visited us they didn’t get out of that church without being hugged,” he said.
‘THINGS NEVER STAYED THE SAME’
The Rev. Donna Hopkins Britt, who served as pastor of Calvary Baptist Church from 2000 to 2014, said she was saddened to learn that the building would be sold.
“Calvary had both the blessing and the curse of having this gorgeous but expensive building to keep up,” she said.
But the decision to sell didn’t come as a total surprise, either. When Britt was pastor, there were conversations with a developer about how best to use the building. Organizations like Community High School and Local Colors used parts of the space for a time.
Plus, she said, the number of active congregants has been declining for some time.
“With a lot of deaths and not that many people joining the church, that’s just how the numbers work,” Britt said.
While church used to serve as the center of social life for many people, she said, some now find that community elsewhere, whether it’s a book club or running group.
The area around the church, which sits at the edge of downtown, has seen major investment and redevelopment over the years through projects like the Cotton Mill Lofts and West End Flats. But Britt said the changes had no real effect on Calvary.
“It was never enough, or the church couldn’t figure out how to tap into that,” she said. “Or the people didn’t want anything to do with the church anyway.”
Betty Hall was born into the church and continues to worship there today, which she said makes her one of the oldest active members.
She said the congregation has been shrinking probably since Gamble’s departure. The church has struggled to attract new members. Hall said younger people seem to gravitate toward a less traditional style of worship.
“They don’t seem to get too much from the stained glass windows and the beauty and the reverence of a large sanctuary,” she said.
It’s quite a change from the church’s heydey, when Hall said Calvary Baptist attracted hundreds of worshipers. On holidays, it was hard to find a seat in the sanctuary or balcony.
“People kind of shook in their shoes because they were afraid the fire marshal would come in and find that they had put folding chairs in the aisle to accommodate the crowd,” Hall recalled.
The sad fact is the congregation is dying, she said. And the few who remain cannot support the building that once burst at the seams.
“It breaks my heart,” Hall said of selling the building. “But I know that things never stay the same.”
Still, Hall said she “will miss this grand lady of a building,” which has nurtured thousands through the years.
POTENTIAL FOR REDEVELOPMENT
The church plans to vacate its Campbell Avenue building by the end of the year, even if it’s still on the market at that point. Pollard, the pastor, said it would be more cost effective to winterize and shutter the building than continue to use it.
Pollard said Calvary Baptist is in talks with other congregations about sharing facilities. They aren’t looking to combine with another church, but rather to find a space to worship at a separate time.
Once the Campbell Avenue building is sold, Pollard said, the church will have more options.
“A building to me is not nearly as important - and it shouldn’t be - as our mission and what we’re about as a congregation and staying together,” he said.
When the congregation is out of the building and has a moment to catch its breath, it will think about next steps, Pollard said.
Pollard said members don’t have any expectations about what will become of the church building after it’s sold. He said they recognize that tax breaks often entice developers to convert such buildings into living spaces.
“We’re hoping that whoever decides to buy it will find a way to keep some of the character of the building depending upon what they’re going to use it for,” Pollard said.
Britt said she hopes whoever buys the building does “something wonderful with it.” Maybe a concert hall - the sanctuary has good acoustics and “the Cadillac of pipe organs.” Apartments or a restaurant would also be nice, she said.
Matt Gaziano, an associate with commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield - Thalhimer, said the more than 55,000-square-foot church, which sits on 1.68 acres in downtown Roanoke, is listed at $1.95 million.
“We have priced it to attract investors who are interested in a downtown redevelopment opportunity as well as a buyer who could use the existing church operation,” he said.
If the building is redeveloped, Gaziano said a mixed-use development - perhaps street-level commercial space and multi-family housing above - would be likely. He noted that the property is in an opportunity zone, meaning there are potential tax incentives for redevelopment.
The property has only been listed about a month, but Gaziano said there’s already been interest from both church groups and developers.
The building has served the church well for 95 years, McKinney said. While leaving the building is emotional, he said the church can now spend its money in better ways, on more ministries to the community.
“I still think God has big plans for Calvary church. We just need to discern what those plans are and go forward,” McKinney said. “Go forward with excitement and joy and continue to worship Him and serve Him.”
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