Calvary Church in West Philadelphia is historically designated against the church’s wishes

West Philadelphia’s Calvary United Methodist Church, at 48th Street and Baltimore Avenue, was given historic protections on Friday despite a long campaign against such regulation by the building’s owner.

Historic designation makes it harder for an owner to demolish or substantially alter the exterior of a building. Church leadership fought the effort to nominate their building, citing a fear of burdensome regulation that would add to the already high cost of maintaining the aging structure.

The contentious nomination process was initially fueled by a nearby debacle in May 2023, when a church two blocks away from Calvary accidentally sold off rare Tiffany stained glass windows and replaced them with plywood.

Those windows ended up selling at auction for $200,000. Soon after, Calvary asked an assessor from Freeman’s, the Philadelphia-based auction house, to assess the value of the church’s own set of Tiffany windows: two 32-feet-tall stained-glass panels depicting the resurrection and the ascension.

“We got wind that Calvary was interested in selling their windows,” said Amy Lambert, president of the University City Historical Society. “We just wanted to … make sure that Cedar Park didn’t lose two churches with incredible architecture and Tiffany windows.”

In July 2023, the University City Historical Society submitted a nomination for historic designation, citing Calvary’s enormous Tiffany windows as “the main artistic treasures” of the church.

Tim Emmett-Rardin, the half-time pastor of Calvary, said the church was simply gathering information when it contacted Freeman’s, and it did not actively intend to sell the windows or the building, which would have been difficult to do anyway because of restricted grants the church had received.

“When you’re in a desperate situation — as we are and have been, particularly financially — it’s human nature to consider all possibilities,” Emmett-Rardin said.

Since he heard about the nomination in the fall of last year, Emmett-Rardin, his congregation, and the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church, which owns the building, have all opposed it.

They feared the regulations would increase the cost of needed repairs, even as the 75-member church was struggling to maintain its enormous building already.

“Our opposition centers primarily around economic impact, economic freedom, and also religious freedom, tied to the First Amendment,” Emmett-Rardin said at a May subcommittee meeting about the nomination.

In response to what Lambert describes as this unexpectedly fierce pushback, preservation supporters organized neighbors and former Cedar Park residents to write letters and emails describing how important the church is to the neighborhood.

The building is used, and loved, by a wide variety of groups. In 2000, in response to mounting repair and financial pressures, Calvary founded a separate nonprofit organization, the Calvary Center for Culture and Community, to restore the building and transform the church into a neighborhood hub. The organizing campaign to preserve the building by diversifying its users came in response to an effort to sell the Tiffany windows.

Today, the Calvary Center hosts a theater company, multiple singing groups, the West Philly Quaker Meeting, and a martial arts class. Rents raised from the users help maintain the building.

The goal of historic designation, Lambert and others say, is to preserve the local architectural icon for the whole community — no matter who owns it in future.

“My hope is that now that this testimony has come out, these notes of affection and appreciation for the place, that it inspires the church,” Lambert said. “Instead of complaining about undue burdens, recognize the power of people and place. It’s expensive to restore but also very meaningful to lots of people.”

Supporters also noted that the church has been able to access funding from the state government in Harrisburg, with Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) funds going to repair the roof and Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission aid to restore the stained glass windows. That public investment should be protected by the Historical Commission in perpetuity, they argued.

At the meeting Friday, Emmett-Rardin sounded resigned as he said the church had “neither interest, nor capacity, frankly” to continue to contest the nomination. He described the 18-month process leading up to the official designation as a stressful one for the congregation, which remains in survival mode, trying to keep up the community hub.

“It wasn’t so much a change of heart; it’s just a change of will,” Emmett-Rardin said in an interview afterward. “Over time, it’s just sort of worn us out.”