Preservationists decry church's Mt. Airy plans

The Rev. Ray A. Barnard has what every minister wants: a congregation growing so fast he can't fit everyone into church on Sundays.

The charismatic Germantown minister said he needs a bigger church for his flock of 2,000, and he believes he has found the perfect spot - a 5.6-acre site on Johnson Street in Mount Airy.

But Barnard's plan calls for demolition of two lovely old buildings that once were gracious retirement homes, and that has stirred opposition among Mount Airy residents and community organizations.

Preservation advocates say both buildings, now vacant and run-down, are historically significant, but one in particular, a former home for Baptist ministers at 221 W. Johnson St., stands out as a spectacular specimen of "chateauesque" architecture.

The dramatic building, featuring brown-orange "iron-spot" brick, soaring chimneys, and delicate pinnacles, was erected in 1895 with funds bequeathed by George Nugent, a wealthy woolens manufacturer and devout Baptist who had lived on the site.

"I don't think there is another building like it in the city," said John Gallery, executive director of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia, an organization that seeks to protect historic buildings. "It is an amazing building. I find it hard to believe it isn't already certified" historic.

But it is not. Nor is the second building, a former home for retired music teachers at 101 W. Johnson St. built in 1914 by sheet-music publisher Theodore Presser.

The Preservation Alliance, with the backing of many Mount Airy neighbors, is seeking to have the buildings placed on Philadelphia's Register of Historic Places. That would prevent demolition except by approval of the city Historical Commission.

The Historical Commission is expected to consider the applications in October.

As a result, Barnard's congregation, the Impacting Your World Christian Center at 5507 Germantown Ave., is facing what could become a long delay in its plans for a church.

The nattily dressed pastor, who drives a silver Mercedes-Benz roadster, preaches a gospel of faith-inspired self-betterment and prosperity. He said his congregation had grown from 170 to 2,000 since 1996, bringing overflow crowds to three services on Sundays.

Barnard said he believed that God had led him to the Johnson Street site, but that the buildings must go.

"We place value on the lives of people above property," the pastor told a committee of the Historical Commission this month. "We've already secured our funding. We're ready to go."

Barnard has hired Carl Primavera, a lawyer with the politically influential firm Klehr, Harrison, Harvey, Branzburg & Ellers, to represent him before the Historical Commission. (Leonard Klehr, head of the law firm, is a confidant of Mayor Street and Street's campaign finance chairman.)

Jonathan Lipner, a principal owner of the Johnson Street property, said he had a pending agreement of sale with Barnard.

Lipner said dozens of developers had looked at the retirement homes and found them to be "functionally obsolete." He contends that the property has no value except as vacant land.

Gallery and leaders of two Mount Airy community groups dispute that. They said they know of developers - as yet unnamed - who are interested in restoring the buildings for residential use.

The faded retirement homes caught in this tug-of-war were objects of affection in Mount Airy through most of the 20th century. Through endowments provided by Nugent and Presser, the buildings were meticulously maintained. Their gardens and grounds were lovingly tended.

At the Presser home, built in the Renaissance Revival style, retired music teachers frequently held evening recitals in a downstairs salon. At the Nugent home next door, the Baptist ministers lived amid the architectural splendor of a 16th-century French chateau.

But with changing times and the advent of pensions and retirement plans, the homes lost their purpose as havens for these genteel retirees.

By the 1980s, both homes closed and were sold to a group of real estate investors led by Lipner and a partner, Alan Lieberman. The buildings were converted to personal-care homes.

The Presser home, renamed Mount Airy Commons, soon became a problem for the neighborhood. Designed for 65 residents, the home was crammed with as many as 200 elderly and mentally troubled residents.

Neighbors complained for years about conditions at the home and about disoriented residents wandering the streets.

Two years ago, Lipner and his associates closed Mount Airy Commons and the Nugent home, which had been renamed the Edgewood Retirement Community. The buildings have been vacant since then.

The Preservation Alliance contends that, despite damage and neglect, the buildings are structurally sound and retain most of their original architectural features.

"It's so incredible that they're on the same site," Gallery said. "Both of them right there together is what makes this such an unusual situation."

Gallery wants both buildings saved.

But it has become clear that some Mount Airy residents feel most strongly about saving the dazzling Nugent building.

"We all would like both buildings to survive, but especially the Nugent home," said Marc Stier, president of West Mount Airy Neighbors. "That one is really important. It's not one we're going to give up."