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Temple of Judah for sale or lease
According to a sign posted across the front window of the building, the Temple of Judah church building at 2120 Venable Street is for sale or lease. There was no answer to a call to the number listed on the sign.
Temple of Judah has been at the Venable Street location since 1959 under the pastorage of Melvin Williams, Sr. and Melvin Williams, Jr.. The Romanesque Revival-style building was erected in 1884 by Christ Episcopal Church.
The city lists the property as being owned by “TRUE APOSTOLIC CHURCH OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST TR”. This group is also listed as owning 7 other properties in the immediate area. As recently as 2009, the church or it’s pastor owned 19 properties in the neighborhood, 13 of which were either vacant lots or vacant buildings. The most prominent of these, the Citadel of Hope on Venable Street, burned almost a year ago and has been listed for sale for the past 6 months.
This church is a classic example of how urban pastors often put church property in their own names. Co-mingling of funds and ownership that’s not tolerated anywhere else. Look at all the demolition by neglect this particular church has caused and how many slum properties it owns. And yet the pastor of this church so often gets the media call for a sound bite to give a quote from the urban perspective.
19 properties! Time for all of these parasitic churches to start paying property tax like everyone else.
A church can only be exempt from the church building itself and one dwelling unit, so they owe on at least 18 of the properties.