A Broken Sidewalk tipster pointed us to the site of the most recent historic destruction in the Shelby Park neighborhood on East St. Catherine Street. A two-and-a-half story brick townhouse most recently used as a church for the Riverview Missionary Baptist Congregation is being reduced to rubble.
We stopped in to the church’s nearby Lydia House where they serve bag lunches and operate a clothes closet for the needy. The congregation has moved its services around the corner to Jackson Street but owns the land where the house once stood and the vacant grassy lot next door (now just dirt after heavy machinery rolled through). Future plans call for building a new church on the site, but currently no money or timeline exist for the project. This building is an unfortunate loss given its scale and brick structure compared to the surrounding mostly wooden shotgun houses. Another one bites the dust.
could you please revisit that site and try to find out the scoop on the beautiful homes that have been built there? Are these new homes mixed income or subsidized housing? Thanks!! Love this page, I read it all the time!!
Lisa, I wasn’t aware anything has been built on this site since the demolition. I will check in and see what I can find. Too bad they couldn’t have simply renovated the original townhouse in the first place!
Lisa P – The beautiful homes you speak of were developed by New Directions Housing using federal Neighborhood Stabilization funds for single-family homeownership. Buyers can earn up to 120% of AMI. The new homes replaced 2 vacant and dilapidated properties and 2 lots that were vacant. The lots the former Riverview church building sat on, remains vacant.
@Lisa P –
http://www.facebook.com/pages/I-Live-Shelby-Park-East-Saint-Catherine-Street/172229662793575