Squatting in its corner of the Arts District, St. Paul United Methodist Church is dwarfed by One Arts Plaza to its immediate south and by the rising concrete pedestals holding up Woodall Rodgers to its north. Even the polished and expanded Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts across Routh Street to the west seems to mock the stocky old church.Passing St. Paul along the access road or Routh during the years of the Arts District’s expansion, one would be forgiven for not noticing the church. The building seemed like an afterthought left in the corner to accent the gleaming new structures around it with antique heft and gritty charm.
But the church has not been empty or quiet for 137 years. In fact, it’s one of Dallas’ oldest black churches. Though initially overlooked by Arts District developers as they worked on the recent expansion, St. Paul will this month complete a unique $5 million renovation project that will ensure the church remains a vital part of the sector. The project was unique because it began not at St. Paul but at another Methodist church, this one in a distinctly different setting.
In 2005, senior minister Reverend Mark Craig, of Highland Park United Methodist Church, decided that he wanted to protect and preserve Dallas’ inner-city churches. With a seed contribution from one of his flock, developer Harlan Crow, Craig targeted St. Paul.
One small problem with delivering surprising, unsolicited gifts to anyone is the skepticism the gift will likely engender: “Thanks, but why me? And what are your real intentions?” In this case, the small problem was enlarged because the benefactor was a wealthy, conservative, predominantly white church, and the recipient was a small, working-class black church. Even more, given black history in Freedman’s Town, the area we now call Uptown, worries of encroachment, ownership, and even racism would have been understandable.
Continue reading . . .
Walton Muyumba
0 comments:
Post a Comment