former St. John's Lutheran, Rocky Ridge

As one enters the tiny hamlet of Rocky Ridge, this stately old steeple towers over the town. I had to go see what it was!
But as you round the corner toward the church, it becomes immediately obvious that something is NOT. RIGHT.

Now this is about sad.

What a MESS! Obviously abandoned for many years. I thought this only happened in the big city. Deteriorating, falling apart, forgotten. Rotting. What WAS this tattered place that was obviously beautiful at some distant time past??!?

Oh, for cryin' out loud.

Oh, this is just a crime.

The St. John's congregation still exists, in their newer and larger church at the edge of town that they built in 1967 (taking the old bell with them). At the time, they properly sold the building. It's out of their hands (but I'm guessing it's not out of their hearts).
While I was taking these pictures, I was joined by a lady by the name of LaVerne who lives right across the street. She has co-written a book called "Reflections of Rocky Ridge", that can be had at the Port Clinton or Oak Harbor library (and I intend to get the book when I can; it's not carried at the Toledo library). She told me that she had grown up in this church, was baptized and confirmed here. She talked about the little evangelical congregation that used the church for some years after St. John's sold it; that on warm summer Sunday evenings, they'd prop the front doors open during their services, and she'd listen to and enjoy their music.
But eventually that congregation disappeared. The church was shuttered and abandoned; but that it was purchased at some point by a SLUM LORD (my words) in a nearby town who just hasn't done anything with it but let it sit and rot. He owns other properties in the town, a former grocery store next to the church, now boarded up and suffering the same fate. Shameful. (In other words, it really IS a crime.)
The overgrowth of flowers and vines gives this buttress a strangely tranquil appearance, even though it's on the verge of collapsing.
What IS this, anyway?? Some sort of septic tank sitting in the yard?!
I was told that flocks of pigeons have been known to use the building as a roosting place (thus adding, no doubt, to the highly unpleasant circumstances on the other side of that barricaded door). This makes it easy for them. Let's not even talk about bats.
Hey, Rocky Ridge SLUM LORD. CLEAN IT UP!! The people of this little village don't want to have to keep looking at this. Either fix it up and get tenants in it -- these things are in demand as private homes these days, there's a beautiful little one in Scotch Ridge -- or tear it down. It hurts me to suggest that, but this is an eyesore in an otherwise bucolic little town that doesn't want this sort of big-city blight in their midst. Quit using it as a tax writeoff excuse. CLEAN IT UP!!!

former Grace-Ascension Lutheran, Toledo

Sometimes the storied face of historic churches turns tragic.

This was the first location of Grace Lutheran Church. The congregation, established in 1900, built this cute little church at Forest and Pinewood in 1902, to serve its German neighborhood of that time. This is where my mother was confirmed, and my parents were married. Grace left this building in the early 50's, selling it to a new, predominantly African-American congregation called Ascension Lutheran. Ascension used the building until moving into their current location at Dorr and Collingwood, 30 years ago. I don't know who has owned the building since then ... but they *HAVE NOT* been good stewards of it.
This once-charming church is now a sorry, abandoned wreck and a blight on a neighborhood that already has too many blights.

These crosses, now rusted, still strike an unsettling profile against the sky.

Many of the windows still have partial panes that are original, but nearly all are broken and/or boarded. The original large trefoil window under this Gothic arch must have been beautiful.
There is one - count it, one - original window that is still intact. This is up over a doorway porch roof, less susceptible to being broken out. Lovely little windows these were.

This is what most of the windows look like - partially intact, but broken and boarded.

Cracked, stained cedar shingle ...

One old window (that looks ready to cave in) and one newer window in this gable.

The old postcard photo shows a nave much shorter than this. Everything going all the way back looks original, but I still have to assume that the back of the building was extended at some point after it was built ... quite skillfully.

Glass block in the basement windows?? ... The downspouts appeared fairly recent also. I am guessing that this church may have housed an active congregation perhaps as recently as 5 to 10 years ago, but things can go downhill awfully fast with an old building when no one cares for it any longer.

The sign out front - sad.

Old doors, but they're not original.

Sad ... that door hasn't been used in a LONG time ... is there any hope for this building?

The silver lining on this dark cloud is that Ascension took the beautiful, ornate Gothic chancel furnishings - altar, pulpit, carved wooden eagle lectern, font, lovely old silver Communion set, hymn board, and a couple of old pews! - with them to their current place. That's next.

former St. Luke's Lutheran, Toledo - Northgate Community Church

I wonder how long it's been since a Lutheran has entered this church.
I have almost no historical information to go on here; only an old newspaper clipping at the downtown library reporting the dedication of the Sunday school wing in 1959. It appears that the St. Luke's congregation disbanded about 1980. The county real estate transfer card says that the building passed into the hands of the synod at the time, and from there was sold to the regional district of the Nazarene church. Over the next 20 years or so, I'm told the building fell into a state of disrepair. I don't know the time periods during which it actually housed an active congregation, but when Northgate Community Church finally bought the building about 6 years ago, I'm told it was a wreck. It was being used for drugs, prostitution, possibly dogfighting, and who knows what else. The Northgate congregation thankfully cleaned it up and made it into a home again.
As you enter the narthex, these two glowing windows greet you:
And as you enter the sanctuary, the first thing your eyes fall onto is this breathtaking sight ...

And at the other end of the sanctuary ...

The church is actually quite small. It is rectangular, but the chancel runs along the side of the rectangle, while these gorgeous windows cap the ends.
The altar area is very small, with a pulldown video screen that hymn lyrics are projected onto. This little altar stands underneath a larger hanging cross that, unfortunately, can't be seen because of the screen.
I stuck the camera behind the edge of the screen and fired the flash just to see what I'd get.
There are two hexagonal bays on the Bush St. end of the church. Aside from embellishing the most visible end of the building, I pondered what those were originally meant to enclose.
Here's how they look on the inside. Perhaps one of these bays may have been a baptistry and the other a sacristy. Now, the one at the rear contains the sound and light boards; and the one at the front houses a set of drums!

This window is over a side door next to the Gethsemane window.

There are only two of the original pews left, both in the Sunday school wing that is now used for a meeting room. This long pew is slightly curved; the pews were laid out in a semicircular arrangement facing the altar. The other pew is a short deacon's pew. The engraving on the pew ends is lovely. I'm told the pews were in too poor a condition to save, that people would sit on them and get dumped onto the floor. These two were the only ones kept.

These two niches once held stained glass windows like the ones in the narthex. They must have been broken out. The openings are boarded on the other side, in the wall of the outer staircase that was probably wide open for a long time. Now these niches hold Bibles and hymnals, and the staircase is behind glass doors.



It's always sad to hear about a congregation that had to disband, but this building lives on as a home for a small but warm and vibrant Christian Missionary Alliance congregation. If anyone knows anything whatsoever about the history of the former St. Luke's Lutheran congregation in Toledo, please let me know.