Church of the Assumption

In Philadelphia, a considerable number of historic churches have been forced to close because of dwindling congregations. Some have been bulldozed into oblivion, their altars removed and placed in other churches.

In the Fairmount neighborhood, I witnessed the slow demolition of Saint Hedwig’s Catholic Church, which the Philadelphia Archdiocese closed in 2005. This beautiful, structurally sound church, school and rectory complex had served the Polish community for some 70 years. The crash of bulldozers against the still healthy edifice was nothing less than a Dr. Kevorkian moment. The rubble formerly known as St. Hedwig’s was replaced by a very nondescript apartment/condo complex, what my great aunt used to call: “A sight for sore eyes.”

In 2007, the Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia cited a number of vacant church properties in the city, both Catholic and Protestant that stand in need of repair.

The Alliance’s list of historic churches included the cathedral like (and empty) Saint Boniface church at Diamond and Hancock Streets in West Kensington, an architectural treasure that weathers away slowly, its beautiful glass stained windows removed and replaced with Plexiglas. This so called brownstone basilica, built in 1872 and closed in 2006, used to be the home of the Redemptorist Order of Catholic priests.

An organization known as the Philadelphia Church Project reports that after Saint Boniface was closed a number of artifacts were discovered in the church’s gutted interior.

The found objects—a crucifix, an old clock, a pile of books and chunks of intricately sculpted marble -- speak volumes about what’s important and what’s not in our post-industrial, throw-away society.

Church of the Assumption

Perhaps the most famous church on the Preservation Alliance’s list is the Church of the Assumption at 12th and Spring Garden Streets.

Today the church stands as a ‘deconsecrated’ shell of its former self, stripped of interior altars and iconography. The church’s demise occurred 15 years ago when a dwindling congregation of less than 50 forced the Archdiocese to put the church up for sale. This happened despite Assumption’s connection to two American Catholic saints, Saint John Neumann (who helped consecrate the church) and Saint Katherine Drexel, who was baptized there.

Designed by Patrick Charles Keely (1816-1896), a prolific ecclesial architect of the 19th century who designed some 600 churches in North America, the Church of the Assumption was erected in 1848-49 when that area of Spring Garden Street was mostly a field.

No changes were made to the church until the parish’s 50th anniversary in 1899 when there was a reconfiguration of the main altar. The church, with its 15-stories tall copper spires, flourished comfortably throughout most of the 20th century until its congregation began to dwindle shortly after the Second Vatican Council.

The problem of declining Catholic urban congregations can be partially explained by the growth of suburban parishes, but it must also be noted that in the 40-some years since the Vatican Council, the Catholic Church has suffered significant loses and many dramatic controversies – all of which continue today.

Far fewer clergy, nuns and faithful who attend church regularly could be put at the top of that list. The many urban churches built to serve the spiritual and, at times, temporal needs of these long-gone parishioners are among the most visible and haunting casualties.

When the church of the Assumption finally closed its doors in 1995, the high altar was removed to a Catholic parish in Birdsboro, Pennsylvania. A number of paintings went to the St. Charles Borromeo Seminary library, in Overbrook, while sections of stained glass went to Saint Joseph’s University’s lovingly-maintained collection.

The Baptismal font, where Katherine Drexel was baptized, was installed in the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul.

Enter Siloam

In 2006, the property was purchased by a non-profit social services organization, Siloam, a Wellness Center for People Living with HIV/AIDS. Not long after the acquisition, Siloam claimed they could no longer afford the cost of upkeep and made plans to demolish the church.

But demolition was not an option for West Poplar/Callowhill resident Andrew Palewski. Palewski worked with concerned neighbors to thwart the threat of demolition. His efforts paid off. On May 8, 2009 the Philadelphia Historical Commission elected to add Assumption to the list that the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places maintained.

Then, in a bizarre U-turn that had preservationists seeing red, the Historical Commission voted to approve demolition of the church in September 2010. The Callowhill Neighborhood Association subsequently appealed the call for demolition.

“The city’s L & I Review Board heard all of the testimony on appeal of the Historical Commission’s decision to allow the building to be demolished, and they are reviewing the testimony and have not yet issued their decision,” Preservation Alliance’s Executive Director John Gallery told me by phone.

“At the moment I guess you can say it’s sort of in Limbo, in other words, no one knows what the L&I Review Board will determine . . . the demolition is on hold.”

Save Our Sites

John Dowlin, president of Philadelphia’s other preservation group, Save Our Sites (SOS) reiterated that the Church of the Assumption was added to SOS’s 2010 list of endangered buildings that face destruction, neglect or demolition.

“Old churches can and have been restored,” he said. “We have two examples of late 19th century churches on 38th Street, at Chestnut and also Spring Garden. The latter, once the site of St. Agatha, was bought in the late 1980s by developer/designer Caroline Millett who then enlisted architect Frank Weiss. Not shy of new ideas, Weiss had the roof taken off, a new building dropped in, and the roof put back on. So you now have a building within a building with affordable apartments. This took about $15 million, I'm told.”

After the Historical Commission’s 2009 designation of the property as historic, Palewski told me in an interview that Siloam had a private contractor tear out much of the interior of the church. “At the time they were claiming they didn’t have the finances to do anything with the building,” he said.

“Even after the historical designation, it’s still possible to find an L&I agent to say that a building is in danger of collapse,” Mr. Palewski then added. “After that, it’s even possible to get a judge to sign off on it.”

Palewski’s words had the ring of prophecy, coming as they did just months before the Historical Commission’s change of heart.

Before the Walls Come Crashing Down

The Siloam’s approach has been to harp on the building’s structural flaws. In 2007 an independent engineer assessed the building as structurally sound and “ready for reuse.” Since that analysis, Palewski says that Siloam has not allowed further assessments of the building, nor has the agency been pro active in trying to sell the property.

“We have repaired things that were in much worse condition,” Palewski said. “The building has a long way to go before the walls are going to come crashing down.”

John Gallery also questions Siloam’s contention that the building is structurally unsound. “The structural problems (of the steeples) have been debated by different engineers as to how true that is. There are differences of opinion,” he said.

A Visit to Albany

Last year, when I visited Albany’s (Patrick Keely-designed) cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, I could see that this magnificent neo-Gothic church had been the victim of an architectural wreck-ovation. While the structure is still very much in use, a lot of the interior Keely touches had been destroyed or altered. The good news was that the cathedral was in the process of being renovated to reflect its traditional character.

The ‘Keely wreck-ovators,’ in the name of modernism, tore out the altar rail, which had been a gift to the parish from the first publisher of the Albany Times Union newspaper, in 1902. The 18- carat bronze gold leaf Honduran mahogany altar rail was cut up and sold.

My priest tour guide told me that the cathedral’s hunt for the altar rail had been unsuccessful, but that one story had it being used in a Massachusetts synagogue.

But that, as they say, is another story.