Historic Augusta church, now vacant, to be razed

Utility removing ground contamination as part of $12.5M project.

Augusta’s Trinity CME Church, a historic sanctuary built by former slaves, will be demolished this year during Atlanta Gas Light’s remediation project to remove ground contamination in the area.

The $12.5 million project will begin in the summer to remove coal tar, a chemical byproduct of the gas manufacturing process, which still contaminates the ground near the former gas plant that operated at Eighth Street and Walton Way from 1852 until 1955.

AGL spokeswoman Tami Gerke said the vacant Trinity church on Taylor and Eighth streets is too structurally unsound to be relocated while workers remove contamination under the building, and it would not be possible for engineers to work around the structure.

“We had hoped to provide a remedy that would prevent the need to raze the church,” Gerke said in an email.

“We understand its significance to the city, the church members and the community, but in order to address the impacts in the groundwater, the materials under the former church building must be addressed.”

Officials with Miracle Making Ministries had been hoping for years that it would be possible to save the 122-year-old structure and renovate it into a cultural center for weddings, events and community service programs.

President Robert Williams said the ministry, which leases the church at no cost from Atlanta Gas Light, has put a significant amount of money over the years into maintenance and repairs, though he could not provide a figure.

The ministry began leasing the sanctuary after the Trinity CME congregation moved to a new church on Glenn Hills Drive in 1998. The original structure was used as a base for health clinics and outreach until the first phase of the decontamination project began in 2003.

The church has sat vacant since 2003, falling into disrepair, and is frequently vandalized. The ceiling is caving in from water damage and much of the mortar between the bricks has dissolved into dust.

“I think it’s a necessary evil,” Williams said of the demolition. “They’ve got to clean up the ground. The church is sitting there going to the dogs because there’s gas leaking from the ground into the crawl space. It’s not (habitable), and there’s no point in wishing it to be any longer.”

Trinity was founded in 1840 by about 125 slaves who attended St. John Methodist Church with their white owners. A small barn-like structure, which still stands today covered in weeds, was built in 1843 before the current church was erected in the 1890s.

The early congregation also put their resources together to purchase the freedom of an Athens slave preacher, the Rev. James Harris, and brought him to Trinity in 1853 to serve as pastor.

In 1985, Atlanta Gas Light began soil and groundwater investigations at the former manufactured gas plant, which sat directly across the street from Trinity.

Soil and water tests confirmed contamination existed beyond the plant’s property lines.