By BRIAN NEARING, Staff Writer  First published: Wednesday, July 9, 2003

Suggestions vary for using old church
Residents offer ideas for turning former St. Joseph's into a commercial venue  
 
 
About two dozen people attended a brainstorming session Tuesday on the former St. Joseph's Church, with ideas ranging from a day care center or cultural museum to a botanical center or banquet hall.

"Whatever happens here, it should reflect the history of Arbor Hill," said Lasone Garland-Bryan, whose family has owned the nearby Garland Brothers Funeral Home for more than 80 years. "It should reflect the people who have remained in Arbor Hill."

Garland-Bryan was among those who met in a steamy basement in the nearby Sweet Pilgrim Baptist Church at the invitation of the Historic Albany Foundation, which is looking at a new life for the crumbling 138-year-old neo-Gothic stone church.

The foundation took ownership of the church from the city last month and expects to spend $600,000 just to stabilize the building in time for winter by shoring up sagging columns that support the roof.

Matthew Bender IV, a prominent local philanthropist who heads a committee that will recommend a final plan, said he is pleased with the suggestions that have been received.

"People want to see multiple uses," he said. "And people seem to have a business sense about it, that the building has to generate revenue." Preliminary estimates are that it could cost $5.5 million to renovate the church, although firm figures can't be reached until there is a plan.

Bernie Bryan, of First Street resident, said the church has to be "commercially appealing" to help repay the cost of saving it. He suggested that is could be returned to some of its original ceremonial uses -- weddings, funerals and christenings -- although in a secular fashion as a kind of banquet facility.

Former Albany city urban renewal director Dave Riker said, "You have to remember that it took 1,000 parishioners to build and support this church." He said the entire building, which has about 15,000 square feet of usable space, has to be put to use to support its rebirth.

His recommendations including an architectural design institute, where artisans could learn historic trades like stoneworking. He also said the church should create a link to Albany history, either to the Adirondack lumber industry, which enriched businessmen who built the original grand homes on Ten Broeck Square around the church, or to the Underground Railroad, a network of abolitionists who help runaway slaves flee the South prior to the Civil War.

"Groups like this will already have a money base. Try to tap into that," Riker said.

Other hearings are scheduled from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., July 19, at the New Covenant Charter School, 50 Lark St., and from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., July 23, at the city of Albany's Public Safety Building, 165 Henry Johnson Blvd.