On the corner of Carpenter and Congress Streets stands Mount Zion Baptist Church. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1980, Mount Zion was one of two black churches in Athens — but it hasn’t been used since 2005.
Once a hub of activity for students and Athens residents, the building is now falling apart, adorned with broken windows, padlocked doors, a sign that reads “God Will” and the occasional graffiti message.
Athens boasts a number of churches, some dating to the 1800s, but keeping a church functioning can be a difficult process, even if there is historical significance.
A new venture — the Mount Zion Preservation Committee — is hoping to preserve and revive the once thriving building, but the church’s future still stands uncertain.
History
Mount Zion Baptist Church was first organized in 1872 and was held in a frame building on the corner of High and Lancaster streets before Edward C. Berry, founder of the Berry Hotel, contributed most of the money and the land to build the new church in 1905. The church officially opened in 1909.
With upwards of 200 members at its start and an average 100 members per service, Mount Zion was a prominent feature in Athens, said Henry Woods, chairperson for the Mount Zion Preservation Committee and coordinator for OU campus recycling.
When Woods was a boy, his father was the assistant pastor at the church.
Born and raised in Nelsonville and having attended a Baptist church in Nelsonville, Ada Woodson Adams, president and cofounder of the Multicultural Genealogical Center and part of the preservation committee, was baptized and married at Mount Zion.
“When I was growing up, the church was a very important part of the social life, and a lot of activities took place in both of the churches,” she said. “When there was a social function at Mount Zion, we would go, and when (our church) had something, Mount Zion would come.”
From 1945 to 1960, the congregation was mostly made up of the local black population, with students playing an important role in worshiping, but after 1960 — and especially in the ’70s — it became more students than residents, Adams said.
“A lot of blacks left the area to find employment and others got older, and the population decreased,” she said.
When Francine Childs, professor emerita in the department of African-American studies, arrived in Athens in 1974, there were eight members of the church. She began to reach out to community members and students in an attempt to revive it.
Six OU students started the Gospel Voices of Faith in 1974, — with Francine Childs as their advisor — and they used the church as a practice and performance space. The group is celebrating its 40th anniversary this May, though it hasn’t performed at Mount Zion for years.
Childs became the pastor in 1998 and held the position until 2004 when drama within the church caused Childs to walk away.
“I only did it to try and maintain the church,” Childs said. “Now it’s falling in, full of trash, one of the stained glass windows was all broken; it’s a mess. I hope them much success in the renovation process and its future, but I don’t know if I’ll be a part of it.”
Preservation
About six months ago, Woods said he received a call from old Mount Zion members who wanted to save the church from demolition. Since then, the Mount Zion Preservation Committee has been in talks to preserve and restore the church, but legal complications have slowed the process down.
“The difficulties lie in ownership,” he said. “The church is technically supposed to be owned by the congregation, but an old church member sort of did a takeover and owns the title to it, and now it’s not active or being used.”
According to the Athens County auditor website, Mount Zion church is still owned by the congregation itself.
Once the paperwork for the ownership of the church is settled, fundraising for the church can begin, Woods added.
Berry and his wife Mattie were incredibly influential to the Athens community, so keeping the church around in his honor is one reason for wanting to save it, though there are many historical and cultural values as well, Adams said.
“Historically speaking, it is one of the structures built and paid for by the black effort and plays a part in our local history,” she said. “You always have to have a congregation and money to sustain structures, and one of the hardest parts is going to be coming up with money to renovate and maintain it for use in the future.”
Potential problems
Some churches, such as the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd and First United Methodist Church, have had a presence for Athens for hundreds of years.
First United Methodist has been in Athens before the town was even called Athens. It was founded in 1800, and the first building was built in 1813. The Church of the Good Shepherd has had a presence in Athens since 1875 and has been at its current building (64 University Terrace) since 1950.
One of the challenges for churches in Athens is the constant ebb and flow of population, said Wendy Lybarger, lead pastor at First United Methodist.
Some years have a better turnout than others, and churches have to adjust to the changes, said Allyn Reilly, senior warden at the Church of the Good Shepherd and professor emeritus of music theory.
“It rises and falls, sometimes cyclical and others like a downward spiral, but I like to think it’s cyclical,” he said. “There are times when we struggle a little, but we like to be here on campus, and we will continue welcome students and faculty because that’s part of our mission.”
To keep the Church of the Good Shepherd running and cover maintenance expenses, income into the low side of six figures is necessary, which comes from endowments and member contributions, Reilly said.
After selling buildings — which are now the Claire Oates Ping Cottage and the Konneker Alumni Center — to the university, an endowment was started and is currently sustained by contributions throughout the year, Reilly added.
“We try not to draw too much from the endowment fund, so most money comes from pledges or contributions by the congregation,” he said. “We also get rental money from the rectory building and parking.”
First United Methodist also counts on endowments and donations from members to help sustain the church.
Staying alive
First United Methodist has grown up with Athens, and that has helped it survive, Lybarger said.
“One of our strengths is growing and changing with the community,” she said. “I think right now, we as a culture and as a society are going through changes … and those are changes in the church as well.”
Reaching out to Athens through congregation members is a good way to help sustain a church, Reilly said.
“We try to have a fairly conspicuous presence on campus,” he said. “We have a liaison to United Campus Ministry, student members who are active in in a variety of social initiatives and weekly gatherings such as Pub Theology, a group that meets weekly at Jackie O’s.”
First United Methodist hosts events for the School of Music and other programs which also helps its reachout efforts, Lybarger said.
“We have a new staff member who is going to host concerts with other performers as a way of inviting folks into our church to experience us not in a Sunday setting,” she said. “And for the last 17 years, we have been doing a free lunch for the communities on Monday because it’s a way to participate and help in the community.”
With large institutions, there are constant changes, so staying involved in conversations helps churches survive, Reilly said.
Though OU has been a good neighbor through the years, there are occasional issues with land, such as the empty lot next door, which used to be home to Oasis Restaurant before it was bought by the university, he added.
“There have been proposals for some buildings, and we are hoping they won’t put an overwhelming building there if they do want to build something,” Reilly said.
Recent talks about closing Park Place to traffic also makes the congregation a little nervous, he said.
“Closing the street to traffic would have a direct impact on our space, so we (are) concerned about that,” he said. “It’s something we are watching.”
The church is intrinsic to OU because in the late ’40s, Henry Wise Hobson — the bishop for the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio — had determined that universities were going to play an important role in church growth, Reilly explained.
“In our current location, we are surrounded by university land, and we were put there for a specific purpose of ministering to students and faculty because it is part of our heritage and ministry,” he said. “We will continue to do that for years to come.”
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