The Texas Revolution-themed southeast corner of Goliad and Crockett streets looks to be getting blanked out to make way for more townhomes in the increasingly formerly industrial section of First Ward between Sawyer St., Washington Ave., and White Oak Bayou. Chris Andrews noted the planning commission application asking  the city to chop up the land beneath the former New Hope Missionary Baptist Church buildings into 7 smaller pieces. Also probably getting chopped up into smaller pieces: the structures themselves, which the city’s archaeological and historical commission says may have been among those designed by 1940s African-American church architect James M. Thomas.
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The converting church property has been vacant since about 2008, according to the property’s lot-value-only listing from last spring. CitySide Homes appears to have named the spot Goliad Grove; most of the new lots will back up to some of Unique Development’s Summer Street Landing townhomes.
- 1221 Crockett St. [LoopNet]
Photo of 1221 Crockett St.: LoopNet
This is why Houston sucks.
In 10 yrs there will not be one house or building in Houston older than 50 yrs old sucks but it is true.
Don’t blame Houston. More blame is probably what the church and it’s members did and denomination that probably should’ve acted, too, especially being of faith. If anything Houston, the city could probably give more chance for churches to remain and be stronger against gentrification, but doesn’t mean can avoid it, though.
The building itself is pretty ugly. Not much a loss.
@C, why do churches deserve even more special treatment, besides $80 billion a year in tax subsidies, and the most generous property tax breaks known to man?
Actually, I’d argue that this is one of the rare examples of Houston’s lack of zoning and regulations working out to improve this property and the surrounding area. The property has been vacant for 8 years according to the article…. how long should we wait in order to preserve mediocre, semi-historical buildings? The congregation and owners had plenty of time to try and do something with this property but were unable to. Why not build new construction of high cost homes that will generate some income and tax dollars.
The win-win scenario would be if a cleaver architect and developer could maintain some architectural vestige of the church and incorporate it into a new adaptive reuse design. However, that would probably no be as cost effective and efficient.
re-purposing would be nice. The church building itself might be molded into something, but the secondary building has little redeeming value.
http://www.sanctuary-lofts.com/
http://sf.curbed.com/2016/2/25/11114234/light-house-townhouses-ready-for-market
I didn’t think how religious buildings already are nonpaying on stuff so I guess whatever happened here is even more the members, denomination, and their faith.
“Cleaver architect” = is that cle(a)ver wordplay or just a Freudian slap?
Is it just me or is everything that C writes completely incoherent?
Churches come up for sale occasionally. There’s one in the Third Ward at 2810 Rosedale that’s been on the market for quite a long time, now. If the destruction of this one bothers you, go buy the other one and have fun repurposing it….or start a new congregation.
To me it’s less about the loss of a church, and more about the proliferation of ticky tacky townhomes that no one is going to live in. Developers are still having a field day, and that is surprising to me given the condition of the prevailing industry.
Those ticky tacky townhomes are the only things people can afford to buy so I’d definitely warm up to them sooner than later.
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Can’t remember the name of the place, but I recall there being an old church/school that was converted to condo’s in the lower heights. Thinking somewhere around Travis Elem. Seemed nice and the best way to renovate and retain an old traditional building like this.
@joel: that was the old Woodland Baptist Church, on Morrison at Norma by Travis Elementary. The architects did a nice job preserving the old brick building and converting to condos(or apartments). Too bad this project doesn’t share that type of vision.
I’m in agreement with actualarch: the congregation had 8 years to make a go of it but they may have realized that the best economic use was to just sell.
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While I’m not a fan of government spending, putting a townhome development here will turn this into a tax-generating machine for our city and county overlords. Maybe we can send a few more bucks on street repairs.
You can also blame, our last major for pushing the changes to allow for lots to be re-platted and re-platted into smaller and smaller lots ie all the town homes going in for taxing income. ie amended chapter 42 in 2009, that some how was kept quiet and out of the media. I personally purchased a 96 yr old house recently and fixing it up.
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