The Albany Evangelical Church at First Avenue and Pine Street on Sunday afternoon.
To my eyes, the Albany Evangelical Church is a handsome and important building in the Willamette Neighborhood that should last for another century or two. So I was startled the other day when I stumbled across an online real estate ad that suggested redeveloping the site.
Yes, the church property has been on the market since last year, Pastor Jeremy Gange told me when I called him Monday afternoon. But he made sure I understood that the church was not shutting its doors. Instead it’s a matter, he said, of changing with the times and seeing “what God has planned for us.”
The congregation is smaller than it was when the building was started in 1950 and dedicated in 1953, though recently membership has begun to grow again. The church has 75 or 80 members now.
Much of the attendance at Sunday services — Gange estimates 45 percent of it — is online, especially since the start of the Covid pandemic. One congregant regularly takes part from Boise, and another recently watched from Madrid, Spain.
In other words, there’s been a shift in the way churches function, including this one. For this congregation the building’s vast amount of interior space — about 17,000 square feet — is not really necessary any more.
The property, at 1332 First St. S.E., covers the entire block and includes, besides the church itself, a single-family, three-bedroom house, lots of landscaping and a parking lot with about 50 spaces.
The listing price is $1.6 million. The ad I saw says the property has potential for “redevelopment.”
There’s been some interest from lookers, one from as far away as Texas, Gange said, but they backed off because of uncertainties in the economy.
The congregation, though, is in no hurry to get rid of the building. That’s why you don’t see any signs outside saying “for sale.”
“We’re just asking God what’s in store for us,” Gange said.
Regardless of a potential sale, I’m hoping this building will continue to grace the neighborhood for a good long time. (hh)
You’ll need God’s help to find 1332 First St. S.E.
I think the church can be found at 1332 SE 1st Ave.
It is a beautiful building.
Healing-Life Center!