Op-Ed: Stop Demolition of Friendship Baptist Church

Note: The following is an op-ed piece from frequent Patch contributor and Atlanta resident Molly Read Woo. 

Dear Atlanta Friends -

Friday's AJC is reporting that the owners of the Historic Friendship Baptist Church building and Invest Atlanta have joined to be the combined high bidder to buy Morris Brown properties.

http://www.ajc.com/news/news/city-church-top-bidder-to-buy-morris-brown-for-146/nf59d/

Looks like an interesting week ahead. I hear this Saturday, the church will be holding an open house from 10:00 - 2:00, and their last service in the historic building will be held this Sunday. Of course, that all may have changed in the past 24 hours ...

Anyway - we're still holding a vigil on the Mitchell Street steps of Friendship from 7-8 every night, and plan to continue to do so as long as possible. So if the church is saved or the church is razed - either way - we'll take note of it ...

In the meantime, I wanted to share this open letter to Governor Deal regarding  the state's management of properties at this pivotal Atlanta site. I sent the note to the AJC's letters department earlier today, but wanted to also share it with you. 

Wishing us all the best in the weeks to come.

Thanks for being a friend through all of this.

Molly



Dear Governor Deal,

I have one simple question -

Why aren't we pursuing this plan?  http://vimeo.com/89638667

http://southeast.construction.com/southeast_construction_projects/2012/0816-1B-Atlanta-Intermodal-Project-Wins-Federal-Acceleration.asp

It makes so much more sense to build a well-designed modern transportation hub to serve the entire state of Georgia than what your administration is doing right now in the middle of downtown Atlanta.

Why are we tearing up our streets, demolishing our historical landmarks, and making plans to bulldoze down the Georgia Dome- one of the best economic generators we've got in this state - to go into debt for a deal that doesn't benefit us? Why not at least try to go with a plan that makes sense?

This Atlanta transportation hub is something we really need right now, and we could get federal funding for its construction.

The proposed new Falcons stadium could go anywhere within a 20-mile radius of downtown. You know it should NOT go in the prime central downtown acreage that is currently being leveled to accommodate it. You have at least two compelling legal reasons to halt any further destruction of our city for the proposed new stadium right now.

You have about 10 million reasons to come up with a better plan for that site.

We can do that. We must do that. This transportation center idea is just one possibility. There are others that may be better,  but we can certainly review several of them to come up with the best use of our state resources in the center of our state Capitol.

What we build up or destroy here in the next few years could very well determine what will happen in this state for generations.

Please, slow down the destruction process long enough to evaluate the situation, and take a look at reasonable options for this site.

A stop order on the demolition of Historic Friendship Baptist Church would be a good start. If you do not act quickly, then this valuable state treasure - the oldest black Baptist Church in Atlanta, founded more than 150 years ago by former slaves, and still a wonderful, viable house of worship - will be destroyed on your watch, per your administration's orders.

The state's required EPA study on the environmental impact of the proposed demolition warned of the damage the destruction would cause on the very first page, noting that, "Friendship Baptist Church is considered a historical resource since it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places," and "the proposed demolition" would have, "a significant impact to a historic building."

I don't know how much the state had to pay Langan Engineering and Environmental Services for this study to come up with that conclusion, but I think most of us can agree with the review's 70-plus-page analysis; When you demolish a historic building, you really do a lot of damage to a historic building.

I hope you can act quickly so this state doesn't do something that stupid.  
 
Those of us who care about preserving our state's valuable historical assets have heard that Friendship's current congregation will hold their last service in this church this Sunday.

In case you are not familiar with this irreplaceable historic church your administration may soon have demolished -  you might like to view this short video on our Atlanta's Friendship.

http://youtu.be/gsPD7rHicuc

Once we save Friendship, I hope we can work on building up the rest of our state's great attributes.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Molly Read Woo