Old St. George: St. George Catholic Church - Cincinnati, OH
Ohio
Old St. George Cincinnati, OH
PROJECT DETAILS
Project Name: Old St. George
Historic Name: Saint George Church
Denomination: Roman Catholic
Architect: Samuel Hannaford
Construction Date: 1873
Date of Closure: 1993
Date of Reuse: 1994
Address: 42 Calhoun Street Cincinnati, OH 45202
Neighborhood: Clifton Heights
Reuse: (Principal) Bookstore coffeehouse, space for community meetings and events, classical and contemporary music performances, and spiritual center. (Secondary) Rental facility for weddings and banquets.
Acquisition: $600,000, purchased from Archdiocese of Cincinnati
Project Cost: $350,000+ to date
Designation: Listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Some neighborhoods are defined by their landmarks and anchors. That’s exactly what Old St. George is to Cincinnati’s thriving Clifton Heights area. Built in 1873 to house a primarily Roman Catholic parish, and abandoned 120 years later, Old St. George so far has defied the odds confronting similar facilities where demolition is a common outcome. The prospects for the vacant church were bleak when the doors were locked for one final time in 1993. Instead of passively waiting for the wrecking ball to come, however, a strong--willed group of community members and local youth ministry leaders joined together to make reuse a reality.
In 1994, Old St. George was purchased from the Archdiocese of Cincinnati for approximately $600,000. Since then, Old St. George has reopened with an eclectic offering of programming and community activities. As the community gathered together to form a vision of how the building could be utilized, many ideas were generated community center, spiritual center for interfaith groups, bookstore, library, coffee shop and social resource center. All of the ideas were built around beliefs about spiritual and community improvement. The purpose of Old St. George became “to provide a sacred space that attracts and nourishes the rich diversity of people who seek spiritual and community renewal.”
As a community cultural center, Old St. George includes rental facilities for weddings and other events housed in its 750+ seat Great Hall. The Pilgrim Place Coffeehouse is located in a back room of the church where a cup of coffee can still be had for as little as one dollar. And an adjacent bookstore offers a range of titles consistent with the goals of a faith-based center. Located on the lower level is The Amos Project, a nonprofit group of congregations which use the facility to promote faith through public action.
The team who purchased Old St. George has spent the past decade raising dollars and restoring the church with more than $350,000 invested to date on renovations. Exterior work has included slate roof repairs, new box gutters and downspouts. On the interior there has been new plaster and paint, restoration of original church doors and the installation of a high--end performance space in the former sanctuary with acoustic curtains and sound system.
Old St. George stands as an anchor to a now thriving entertainment district in Clifton Heights. Its proximity to the University of Cincinnati campus to the immediate south has resulted in new student apartments, condominiums, retail and restaurants surrounding the church. This is a relatively new development. For the past 20 years, the area primarily consisted of fast food franchise restaurants and Old St. George became more and more of an isolated anomaly. Its prominent site and gateway entrance to the area makes it a common target for redevelopment proposals. Just last year, a developer offered the Old St. George group more than a million to buy the church to demolish for a Walgreen’s Drug Store. Their offer was rejected. Instead the Old St. George group turned to the Clifton Heights Community Urban Redevelopment Corporation (CHCURC) which purchased the church in 2005 for $1.6 million.
In 1999, the University helped establish CHCURC to redevelop the area, create a sense of place and reconnect it with the surrounding residential neighborhoods and campus. The neighborhood is changing with one early result including the relocation of fast food restaurants out of the district. New development and construction now surrounds Old. St. George. One of CHCURC’s primary goals is to highlight and feature the distinguished and architecturally significant buildings within the area, which includes Old St. George. Their purchase of Old St. George brings some concern about the long term viability of the building as a community center. The Old St. George group will continue to operate the facility through December, 2005. After that, CHCURC will explore future potential uses.
For more information contact:
Old St. George
Clifton Heights Community
Urban Redevelopment
Corporation CHCURC
www.chcurc.org
