City council considers historic designation for church
Pittsburgh City Council on Monday held its first hearing on a recommendation that the former Albright United Methodist Church in Bloomfield be designated a historic property.
The process began with its nomination last fall.
The Western PA Conference of the United Methodist Church, which owns the building at 486 S. Graham St., filed suit in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court in March after the Historic Review Commission approved the nomination. The planning commission also approved it.
Council has not yet scheduled a vote on the issue.
At Monday’s hearing, 15 people spoke in favor of the designation, which protects buildings from demolition unless a property owner makes a convincing case for hardship.
The church, built in 1906 on the design of architect Chauncey Hodgdon in the Richardsonian Romanesque and Gothic Revival style, was
nominated by Lindsay Patross, of Shadyside. A Friends of Albright group collected more than 1,000 signatures petitioning for historic designation.
“There is an incredible community of people who have come together around this building,” she said Monday, citing its potential for reuse as a community center. Several churches have been so reused in the region.
“I first went to Albright for a free Thanksgiving dinner five years ago, and I wondered how many hungry people could there be in Shadyside,” she said. The borders of Shadyside and Friendship abut the site. Based on the crowd that assembled, she said, “I knew the need is real. People of every economic station are hungry for community.”
She said the Friends of Albright has tried to discuss the possibility of purchasing the property but said that the United Methodist Conference has not been receptive.
Amy Bentz, chancellor of the conference and a legal counsel, said the building is already under agreement for sale to Ross Development, which has proposed demolishing the church and building drive-thu retail.
City code allows anyone to nominate a non-religious structure for historic designation, but a place of worship cannot be nominated by anyone but its owner, said attorney David Barton, representing the Conference.
The Conference has maintained that the church, while closed to its previous congregation, remains a religious building, with services occasionally held outside the structure.
Preservation groups maintain that other city commissions have vetted the issue and consider it non-religious at this point.
Brian Bevan, an attorney representing members of the congregation, told council members that no services have occurred in the building since 2013 and called the conference’s claim that services have been held there more recently “a devious assertion.”
Numerous former religious buildings have successfully cleared the city code’s hurdle and are now city-designated historic properties, including the Malta Temple on the North Side and St. Mary’s Academy in Lawrenceville, he said.
“More than 1,000 people want to say loud and proud that this place matters,” said Taafori Kamara, who was a member of the congregation.
Ms. Bentz said a construction cost estimate determined the building would need a $1.3 million investment to be useable but that the conference has no use for it.
“Here’s an asset we can turn into dollars we can use” for advancing the ministry through social services, including literacy, a feeding ministry and building affordable housing, Ms. Bentz said, adding, “We cannot use our money on a building just because it is beautiful.”
City code allows anyone to nominate a nonreligious structure for historic designation, but a place of worship cannot be nominated by anyone but its owner, said attorney David Barton, representing the Conference.