A Youth Centre, a Music Venue, a Bar and a Wedding Hall: What Ohio’s Closed Churches Are Becoming

• St Ladislas Church in Columbus, Ohio, which held its last service in June 2023, is becoming a drop-in centre for homeless youth run by Star House.
• Columbus’s First Baptist Church, built in 1898, is now a music venue.
• St Patrick’s Church in Cincinnati is now the Urban Artifact bar; Holy Ghost Byzantine Catholic Church in Cleveland is a wedding and event space.
• The St Ladislas property covers 26,000 square feet.

As church attendance falls, Ohio’s former churches are taking on new roles. The Statehouse News Bureau, carrying a WOSU report by Ellie Owen, looked at what has happened to several of them.

In Columbus, St Ladislas Church held its last service in June 2023. Its 26,000-square-foot property is being turned into a drop-in centre for homeless young people run by Star House. Star House chief executive Ann Bischoff said: “We’ve nearly doubled the number of young people we’ve served since 2021, so we not only need to expand into the south side to meet the unique needs of young people who live in that neighborhood, but also to offset any sort of capacity issues we might have at our current location.” Vice president Ben Sears said: “This main structure that used to house the organ, which kind of looks like a house already, we’re going to build out in what we call our hub.” No price was reported.

Other former churches have become very different places. Columbus’s First Baptist Church, built in 1898, is now a music venue. St Patrick’s Church in Cincinnati is now the Urban Artifact bar, and Holy Ghost Byzantine Catholic Church in Cleveland is a wedding and event space.

Political scientist Ryan Burge said: “Many of those churches have been around for 200 or 300 years, and [are in] areas that are some of the priciest real estate on Earth.” Dan Cheely, a director of evangelization, said: “What they would prefer is that another church would take it over. That’s preferable to being used for a completely secular purpose.”

The Ohio examples show the range of uses for a closed church, from social services to hospitality. Each depends on the building’s size, location and zoning. Jamaican denominations deciding what to do with closed churches can consider the same range, and may prefer buyers whose plans fit the building’s history. Investors should look at how a large open space can earn money, and at what alterations planners and heritage bodies will allow.

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