Venable Street (1990s)

We need more houses like that one on the corner. Why didn’t the photographer wait for the cars to leave the shot?

There is a trend in this town on the part of inner city churches to buy up vast amounts of real estate and convert it to surface parking. One glance at the above photos illustrate how much of the neighborhood fabric is lost. Surface parking with concertina wire around it where houses once stood is a serious soul-killing eyesore.

I am all for irony, but the idea that these churches are sacrificing the neighborhoods that founded them in order to draw a commuting congregation is just irony upon irony. It doesn’t happen just on Church Hill, either. There are acres of clear fields of fire around Sixth Mount Zion, Ebenezer Baptist Church has almost consumed all the houses on its block. Even the church in Westwood, that resilient and somewhat militant neighborhood on Patterson Avenu recently tore down several houses beside it.

These churches are consuming their neighborhoods. Venable is a very different looking street as a result – and the loss is irretrievable.