{"id":2571,"date":"2008-07-27T21:27:00","date_gmt":"2008-07-27T21:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2008\/07\/a-conversion-story-churches-into-condos.html"},"modified":"2008-07-27T21:27:00","modified_gmt":"2008-07-27T21:27:00","slug":"a-conversion-story-churches-into-condos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/07\/a-conversion-story-churches-into-condos.html","title":{"rendered":"A conversion story: churches into condos"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Once, churches were sanctuaries for refugees and hunchbacked bellringers.  Now, anyone can live there.  More and more canny developers are transforming abandoned churches into condos.   <\/p>\n<p>And the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.boston.com\/realestate\/news\/articles\/2008\/07\/27\/repurposed_under_heaven\/\">Boston Globe<\/a> takes note:  <\/p>\n<blockquote><p> When developer Tony Pace had the chance to turn the 100-year-old former Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Ipswich into a luxury condo, he sought the blessing of a parish priest.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SI0iNUnqFvI\/AAAAAAAACrc\/OKxCoGC58Ik\/s1600-h\/1217165972_2422.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:left;margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer;cursor:hand\" src=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SI0iNUnqFvI\/AAAAAAAACrc\/OKxCoGC58Ik\/s320\/1217165972_2422.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a>&#8220;I needed to be sure it was OK,&#8221; said Pace, 45, who was raised Catholic in Medford. &#8220;He told me that if I treated it with respect, there was nothing wrong with it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Guilt about turning a house of worship into a high-end home isn&#8217;t limited to crib Catholics.<\/p>\n<p>Karnig Ostayan asked his Armenian pastor to bless the former St. Theresa of the Child Jesus Church in Watertown, before turning the church and rectory into 11 upscale condos.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I want to sleep at night,&#8221; joked Ostayan, who attends St. James Armenian Apostolic Church, across Mt. Auburn Street. &#8220;Seriously, I know how much this church meant to people.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Many a neighborhood church has gone condo. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston shuttered 65 parishes since instituting a sweeping parish consolidation in 2004. At least 30 properties have since been sold, many to developers eager to turn an old church into trendy housing, even in a declining real estate market.<\/p>\n<p>Catholic canon law requires that a church be stripped of religious items, including altars, statues, and crucifixes, before it is sold. Most are passed on to another parish looking for a new Blessed Mother statue or stained-glass windows.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our policy is to leave nothing of religious significance behind,&#8221; said Kathleen Heck , who oversees the transition of parishes for the archdiocese.<\/p>\n<p>And once all the saints have found new homes, what happens to the building?<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s available for secular use,&#8221; said Brother James Peterson, head of canonical affairs at the archdiocese.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> There&#8217;s much more at the link, including an impressive photo gallery.  Oh: and the asking price for these former houses of worship?  A cool 700k.  Give or take.  <\/p>\n<p>Any lingering grace, of course, is free.  <\/p>\n<p><i> Photo: by Joanne Rathe \/ Boston Globe <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Once, churches were sanctuaries for refugees and hunchbacked bellringers. Now, anyone can live there. More and more canny developers are transforming abandoned churches into condos. And the Boston Globe takes note: When developer Tony Pace had the chance to turn the 100-year-old former Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Ipswich into a luxury condo, he sought&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-churches"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A conversion story: churches into condos - The Deacon&#039;s Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/07\/a-conversion-story-churches-into-condos.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A conversion story: churches into condos - The Deacon&#039;s Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Once, churches were sanctuaries for refugees and hunchbacked bellringers. Now, anyone can live there. More and more canny developers are transforming abandoned churches into condos. 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