Black church’s renewal fuels community spirit
Athens’ historic Mount Zion Baptist on mend
Ada-woodson Adams’ health is too compromised for her to step inside the more than 100-year-old church – with its wooden floorboards covered in thick layers of dust and mold growing up the walls – but she believes she is still alive today because she has work to do in honor of those who built it.
Adams, 84, grew up attending Mount Zion Baptist Church, a historically Black church in Athens, Ohio, built in the early 1900s by former slaves and other Black residents. Adams and her late husband, Alvin, were married in the church.
Now, more than 60 years later, she is part of extensive efforts to restore it to its former glory and reclaim the history of her ancestors and the formerly vibrant Black population in Athens.
“All the people who went together and built this church, they did it to say to the public at large: ‘We are here, we have a presence in this community and we’re just as good as anybody else,’ ” Adams said. “Today, I’m saying Mount Zion has to have the continued support of everybody so that it, too, can again be the beacon of light on the corner of Carpenter and Congress.”
Though a large group of people are working to restore the building and make it into a community center and gathering place – including a 15-member working board – the project is about more than the structure to Adams.
In 1961, Adams and her husband had to move out of the Athens area because no one would hire them because of the color of their skin, she said. They moved back after retirement in 1999, and many of the Black-owned and built buildings had been demolished.
“I was brought back here not because I wanted to, but because of a higher power . ... It must be my ancestors calling, saying ‘This is what you need to do,’ ” Adams said. “This is where I need to be, and I think I’m still alive today because I
still got work to do.”
That work is preserving her ancestors’ efforts, using the church building to bring the entire community together and sharing the culture of Black churches with others. Once complete, the Mount Zion Black Cultural Center will include a performance venue, a digital archive of local Black history, a place where nursing students can do wellness checks for community members and a drop-in center for kids from the nearby middle school to use.
“... I think I’m still alive today because I still got work to do.” Ada-woodson Adams President of the Mount Zion Black Cultural Center in charge of restoring the church
“It’s going to be for all people,” Adams said. “When we get the structure finished, the ancestors will be proud of it, and they will know that for the next 100 years their lives will not have been in vain.”
The building hasn’t been host to gatherings for nearly 20 years. It was a lively church, featuring a nationally known choir, for decades before it fell into the disrepair that can be seen inside it today. In 1980, it was named to the National Register of Historic Places.
While it doesn’t look like much now, Adams and Sue Righi see past the boarded-up windows, the padlocked doors, the peeling lead paint, the extensive water damage and the detritus that is strewn across the sanctuary to the building’s history and potential.
They see the potential to once again bring people together inside its walls, to create laughter and joy.
“I want people to feel uplifted,” said Righi, who is the chair of the cultural center’s building committee. “To know that this place was filled with the hardearned money and labor of people who were treated so badly ... It’s inspiring.”
It will take millions of dollars and lots of hard work to restore the building. The effort began in 2013 under the name Mount Zion Baptist Church Preservation Society, and it’s been a long road since then. The group has gotten some grants and private donations but is still working to raise around $6 million for the project.
The windows are boarded up because the fragile stained glass was taken out to be protected from the elements and will soon be restored by Nzilani Glass Conservation.
Blind Eye Restoration of Columbus is helping with the wooden frames around the windows, and Columbus-based Hardlines Design Company has been taking a look at what needs to be done in the church overall, what should be done first and how much it will all cost.
Charissa Durst, president of Hardlines Design, specializes in working with historic and old buildings and has helped to preserve and restore many historically Black structures, including the Lincoln Theater on Columbus’ Long Street and the Ozem Gardner House (once owned by a conductor on the Underground Railroad) near Worthington.
The projects aren’t always well-funded, but if they get off the ground they have a large community benefit, Durst said, often in underserved or marginalized communities.
“I feel like I have the ability to help them and see what they can do,” she said. “The ultimate factor of success is it actually continues to be used.”
Durst helped the Mount Zion group get grants thanks to her detailed work inside the former church, Adams said.
Though Athens had many successful Black residents in the early 1900s, almost all the buildings they built and owned are gone now, Durst said. That’s part of why restoring this church is important because it can symbolize that the structure, and those who built it, matter.
“They didn’t just matter but they were important,” Durst said. “They did significant work and should not be forgotten.”
dking@dispatch.com