St. John the Evangelist Episcopal being scrapped | Photo: Christopher Mote
A salvage crew was removing the pews of the St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church in Pennsport today in advance of demolition. The building, which along with the Sacred Heart Church and school and other massive ecclesiastic buildings to the north (which have been converted to residential use), marks the distinctive cityscape of Moyamensing Avenue. The Sacred Heart School is for sale though the parish is active.
St. John closed about a month ago. The property was purchased by a developer who plans to demolish the the church for twelve condominiums, according to Hidden City sources.
Does anyone know the age of the church? Although, I guess that doesn’t really seem to matter anymore in this city…
If I were considering buying a condo in this rather depleted area — I’d be far more likely to pay top dollar for a place that incorporated the entire façade and as much of the interior as possible into it’s condo building. This is a beautiful, but not overly ornate, building. It stands out and has a history. A creative architect, and a developer with good marketing instincts, would recognize that the positives of saving and enhancing this structure far, far outweighs the challenges.
You can’t put a price on the good will it would generate within the community (and some of those people may be buying units there, or referring friends and relatives); it would be more aesthetically appealing than any bland contemporary architecture they are considering; potentially tremendous press coverage of their “saving” the church through conversion (irony intended) — a press release could go out on every stage of the effort, and follow its success as well.
I couldn’t agree with you more ! These condos will be BORING…. No one will remember them .
How LAZY does a developer have to be to not see the value in this building ? If his architect
can’t carve out condos from this wonderful structure then he or she should get their money back
for the education in archetecture they DIDN’T RECEIVE ! If I had the money I’d love to live in
such a NON BORING didn’t come off the assembly line condo. Perhaps just as the movies have
the razzies for horrible acting , someone could bring light to some of the most TALENTLESS
and unimagentive developers and architects in the Philly area . Maybe they could call it the
ROBERT MOSSES AWARD ! Just a thought !
I agree 100%. In fact there’s an old, lovely church in Toronto now that looks similar to St. John, that has kept its facade and much of the interior, converted it into condos and it’s well worth the price. To live in architecture like that (above)? Wonderful. In Toronto they didn’t demolish their church to build some ugly, cookie-cutter structure.
So sad.
It’s a mid 19th century church – the spires were removed many many years ago. Inside it is undistinguished, but certainly the shell could have been rehabbed well into something interesting – better than what will replace it.
The congregation of St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church was established in 1854; the present building is from 1867. The adjoining parish house is 100 years old. I was a life-long (64 years) member
of the parish. It is heart-breaking to me that the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania and now the developers could not do more to preserve this beloved building.
It is a shameful reflection upon our society that historic church homes are not given more consideration. The people who are responsible for this will line their pockets with money earned in a dispicable manner, no consideration given to the lives of parishioners that these churches served. only considering the bottom line. Sometimes I wonder how people like this sleep at night.
This whole city is shameful in how is allows these money grubbing developers to destroy history so they can get a few extra coins in their pocket.
When they demolished the church, did they find the cornerstone and its contents? I just read the church register and it talked about placement of the cornerstone on November 2, 1867.