Six Downtown Acres for a 47-Acre Campus: A Growing Athens Parish Hands Its Old Site to Developers

• St Joseph Catholic Church in Athens, Georgia, prepared to hand over its six-acre downtown site at 134 Prince Avenue to developers.
• The parish moved to a campus of about 47 acres on Epps Bridge Parkway.
• The 1912 church building was to remain as a restaurant in the ‘100 Prince’ mixed-use development of apartments and shops.
• The parish had outgrown the downtown site as Catholics from other parts of the world settled in Athens.

A Catholic parish in Athens, Georgia, has traded its historic downtown home for a much larger campus because it is growing. The Georgia Bulletin, in a report by Andrew Nelson, said St Joseph Church was preparing to say goodbye to downtown Athens.

The parish had been at 134 Prince Avenue for more than 100 years; the church’s cornerstone dates from 1912, and an addition in the 1980s enlarged the church by removing a wall. The downtown campus covers six acres. The parish outgrew it as Catholics from other parts of the world settled in Athens, and moved to a site of about 47 acres on Epps Bridge Parkway.

The parish was in its final weeks of owning the downtown land before handing it to developers, with a final Mass and the transfer expected in March. Nearly two dozen stained-glass windows were removed for restoration and storage. The original 1912 building was to remain as part of the ‘100 Prince’ project, serving as a restaurant in a mixed-use complex of apartments and shops. The report did not give the sale price or the buyer’s name.

The report cited Archbishop Wilton Gregory’s view that it was better for a parish to be bursting at the seams than to face declining membership rolls.

Not every church sale is a sign of decline. For a growing parish, a downtown site can be worth more to developers than to the church, while a larger site can offer room for parking, schools and future growth. Jamaican congregations that have outgrown town-centre sites could consider a similar move, using the value of the old land to help pay for a larger site. Keeping stained glass and other features, and agreeing to preserve the old church within new development, can protect a parish’s heritage while it moves on.

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