16 replies to this topic

[Stadtplan]

Some photos of First Christian Church from today's Downtown Walking Tour:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[John T Roberts]

This is another beautiful church in our city.  First Christian is designated at all three levels - National, State, and local.  Nitixope, you have another outstanding set of photos.

 

Like Mt. Gilead Baptist Church, they had a swimming pool.  It was built at a later date inside the Education Building (1928-29), which was located on the parking lot to the north of the church.  It was demolished in 1990.

[Stadtplan]

Thanks John. I enjoyed this tour very much. It was nice to hear from the lead minister and the history of the church and its connection to birthing TCU.

One thing I found unique about this church is the clear span structure. As far as I could tell, the main sanctuary didnt have columns interrupting the line of sight.

[John T Roberts]

You are welcome.  I believe you are correct about the clear span.  Historic Fort Worth's Tarrant County Historic Resources Survey book has a photograph of the church under construction.  I remembered that it showed some of the framing.  I pulled out the book and the limestone south wall of the church had already been constructed, but the upper parts of the wall were not built and the not all of the structural steel had been placed.  In the attic I could see several large trusses that spanned both north to south and east to west.  The structure for the dome sat on top of these trusses.  All of this structure is now above the finished ceiling and inside the attic.

[Stadtplan]

It would be fun to explore the back of house areas of this church and really get a feel for the building design. It is interesting to reflect back on how this structure was spared from the main impact of the tornado in 2000, where as Calvary Cathedral was pretty much was obliterated and Bank One Tower was even closer to the church received so much damage.

[Crestline]

This is a beautiful church, but the surface parking lot behind it aggravates me. I assume the church owns that lot? It would be interesting to see future development there that somehow secures the church at least the same amount of parking. 

[John T Roberts]

It doesn't appear that the church owns that parking lot.  However, I do think that it was involved in a legal dispute with the church when a development was proposed for that site.  Part of that parking lot was once owned by the church when they built their 7 story education building in the 1920's.  For some reason, I remember that when they sold the land, there was a deed restriction on the sale that the owner had to provide parking for the church.  I don't remember the details, so if I'm wrong, please correct me.

[Stadtplan]

I did a quick check and there was a article in S-T discussing the sale of half of the church property.  I didn't get so far into a search to find mention of a lawsuit but will check later.  So on Jan 4, 1985, they said First Christian sold the land and education annex building to Rattikin Title Co for $1.7M.  The plan was for Rattikin to raze the annex and to construct an office building for the company within two years.  It said the church owned the entire 40,000 SQFT block bounded by Throckmorton, Taylor, Sixth and Fifth, and Rattikin bought the northern half including the annex.  The church voted with only 100 members present, 12 in opposition.  Apparently, the church had already suffered huge membership losses over the controversy of weather to stay downtown and was over 2,000 members at one point in time.  I recall the lead minister on Saturday making a comment about that too.  This was likely the major cash injection they needed to sustain operations / ministry downtown.  It says too that they had been approached by a number of buyers including: parking lot operators, McDonalds, Texas American Bank, and the Bass Companies.  

 

(I bet there were plenty of "Renderings of Things Unbuilt" for this space.)

[John T Roberts]

I remember the sale to Rattikin Title and I also recall the proposal for the building.  However, I'm almost sure there was more to the deal than just the sale.  I still vaguely recall that Rattikin had to provide parking for the church.  Since I am at work, maybe someone could dig through the S-T archives.  Also, a good friend is a long time member and has served on the building committee.  I can ask her.  I also know the minister, Tom Plumbley, so I could ask him.

[Stadtplan]

I did a quick check and there was a article in S-T discussing the sale of half of the church property.  I didn't get so far into a search to find mention of a lawsuit but will check later.  So on Jan 4, 1985, they said First Christian sold the land and education annex building to Rattikin Title Co for $1.7M.  The plan was for Rattikin to raze the annex and to construct an office building for the company within two years.  It said the church owned the entire 40,000 SQFT block bounded by Throckmorton, Taylor, Sixth and Fifth, and Rattikin bought the northern half including the annex.  The church voted with only 100 members present, 12 in opposition.  Apparently, the church had already suffered huge membership losses over the controversy of weather to stay downtown and was over 2,000 members at one point in time.  I recall the lead minister on Saturday making a comment about that too.  This was likely the major cash injection they needed to sustain operations / ministry downtown.  It says too that they had been approached by a number of buyers including: parking lot operators, McDonalds, Texas American Bank, and the Bass Companies.  

 

(I bet there were plenty of "Renderings of Things Unbuilt" for this space.)

 

I forgot to mention that one of the hidden blessings or silver linings of selling the annex and parking lot was that it gave the church enough money to build a proper elevator and become more ADA compliant.  I believe you can see where the elevator shaft is on my photo above showing the "ugly" side of the church facing the parking lot off the back corner I'm guessing.  As we all know, ADA compliance is a huge issue especially for a functional church not just for compliance but for practical reasons.  I'm not certain all of the the details, but not having that I could see that being an "Achilles Heel" for the congregation.  Another one a lot of times is either air conditioning replacement costs and roofing replacement costs. 

[Crestline]

Here's a title search that turns up a few 1990 documents that refer back to the 1984 sale, parking easement, and financing. My impression from skimming these is that by 1990 the deal hadn't played out exactly as planned and the church and Rattikin had to renegotiate some terms.

 

I used this map viewer to figure out that the current owner is TFT Partners, LLC, who bought from Rattikin in 2007 under this deed that refers back to the earlier parking easement and a 2005 lawsuit between the church and Rattikin. So, it seems like they still weren't getting along very well two decades after the sale. 

 

I'm not sure what TFT's business model is; maybe just a parking lot operator? Wonder if people have approached them with development offers since 2007. 

[Stadtplan]

Nice research Crestline and thanks for the links.  That Tarrant County map view is pretty nice, along the lines of the TAD map viewer and COFW Zoning Map Viewer. 

 

Here is what I pieced together from a quick search without quoting the articles directly from S-T.  You can look them up if you want to read the full articles, not really anything else was mentioned that I saw.

• Rattikin wanted to build a 10-story office, but that all changed in the late 80's with changes in the real estate market.

• Tony Landrum / TLC Urban (The Tower developer) was negotiating to buy the land from Rattikin and build a 50-60 unit / 5 to 6 story residential tower there. (S-T January 18, 2005).  That fell through when there was a failure to negotiate a parking easement for the church to use.

• The Church got nervous that a deal with TLC would jeopardize the perpetual parking easement and Rattikin thought it would be best that a judge sort it out considering they were under contract with TLC to sell the property.  (S-T April 18, 2005)

• Brandon Beck, (Good Eats Grill) bought the land from Rattikin under the name TFT Partners but didn't release info on a timetable for development but claims it is unlikely to be a residential building but was weighing options and considering an office building. (S-T July 23, 2007).

Apparently, the parking easement has a lot of provisions in it which tells me the church had a pretty decent lawyer.  The best solution would be if someone wanted to build an office or condos, how about build a parking garage large enough to accommodate the church too?  These church projects downtown always come back to how to solve the parking issue.  If you can't conveniently and safely park your members nearby, no one is going to want to come to your church.  First Baptist Dallas has really mastered the parking situation and own a ton of parking garage space, probably a major source of (tax free) revenue.

[John T Roberts]

It's good to know that I wasn't too far off the mark with my memory regarding the parking situation at the church.

[Austin55]

There should be plenty of parking near the church in nearby garages. 

I wonder if temporary valets would work for helping assist mobility-impaired members? I know there's a few services that do pop-up valet like Rent a Frog. Expensive, sure, but so is downtown real estate...

[Stadtplan]

I should know the answer to this, but does a parking easement give the church the right to park there for free or give the church the right to pay for parking there, perhaps at a set rate?

[Crestline]

The original 1984 parking easement does appear to give the church the right to park there for free. In my extremely-limited-and-probably-underinformed opinion, this easement is still in force today but does not impose an undue burden on future development of the parking lot into a higher-use structure.

[Stadtplan]

Good find again Crestline.  It appears the church had a very good lawyer on their board and telling by the way this agreement is written, it appears the church has parking as long as what is constructed on that site contains parking space and that the church continues to use their church building as a church.