Worcester Magazine
February 23, 2006
Success story
Our turn
Flying under the radar of the recent media circus was the approval by the Historical Commission of alterations to the towers of the former Chestnut Street Congregational Church — soon to be the Liberty Assembly of God. This marks a happy ending to a long-running architectural saga and an approximate beginning to a promising spiritual one.
The local landmark, which presents its Notre Dame de Paris facade at the top of Pearl Street, was designed by local architect Stephen Earle and completed in 1897 as the Union Congregational Church. It last saw active use in 1982, when its congregation merged with another to form the United Congregational Church, and it had been owned by a succession of would-be developers, the last of them for 20 years.
The structure had deteriorated from neglect over the recent decades, with its interior plaster crumbling and granite stones actually falling loose from its towers. Periodically it became the subject of schemes to preserve and re-use it, all of which foundered against the rocky shoals of financial reality, and its long-time owner finally forced the issue last year by embarking on the procedural path to demolition. Anyone who had gazed at the truss work of the main sanctuary or the ceiling of its subsidiary Moen Chapel, not to mention its gothic façade, understood what a travesty this would be — but who can argue with fears of liability and an owner’s right to salvage some value out of his investment? The list of people or institutions offering to contribute large sums of money to mere architectural preservation in the absence of viable re-use was essentially non-existent.
The building was ultimately saved by the appearance on the scene of the one category of owner that had never seriously been considered amid all of the brain-storming about re-use — an actual religious congregation. The Liberty Assembly of God, an evangelical congregation that had grown from 12 members to 1,200 over the course of a decade, was looking for a physical base in the city from which to pursue its spiritual and social mission. They entered negotiations with the owner, and both the city and Preservation Worcester contributed funds to help close the deal. Preservation Worcester received a preservation restriction on the exterior of the building as part of the agreement, but explicitly accepted the likelihood that the towers would have to be taken down.
Much labor and analysis later, the church finally arrived at a reinforcement strategy whereby only the very tops of the towers will need to be removed, with the stones marked and catalogued for possible reconstruction. This is the resolution approved by the Historical Commission two weeks ago. More important, however, the congregation has scheduled its formal re-opening of the building for this Friday evening, with the general public invited the following day, Saturday, February 25, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Historical preservation is one thing — and a good thing. Actual re-use is quite another, and provides an invaluable engine to fuel the former. It should be a source of genuine community pride that the public will be able to continue to enjoy the presence of this architectural treasure at the top of Pearl Street. It should be a source of far deeper comfort that such preservation is coming through the mechanism of active use by a thriving and energetic congregation.