TEXARKANA, Ark. - Beech Street First Baptist Church cares about preservation, but maintaining a historic house it owns is not financially feasible and the land the house is on can be put to better use, the church's lead pastor said Thursday.
Pastor Craig Jenkins explained the thinking behind the church's plans to demolish the house at 501 Pecan St., known as the Foulke House or Wilson House, which was built in 1903 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. Beech Street cannot continue to cover the "snowballing" cost of maintaining a building it cannot use, and the lot the house is on is the only place where the church can expand its facilities, Jenkins said.
A number of Texarkana residents, including four at Monday's meeting of the city Board of Directors, have expressed a desire to preserve the house since a sale of its contents brought the matter to light last week.
A church task force conducted a study of options regarding the house and this summer concluded that demolition would be the best course of action. A "strong majority" of the congregation then voted in favor of the plan, Jenkins said.
"For the last several years, we've seen declining use, no real clear ministry purpose for the house, so it really got us to thinking at what point with our resources can we just continue to pour money into this, that's not being used at all," he said.
Jenkins said maintenance issues in the house are so overwhelming that only one contractor would even venture an initial cost estimate - $80,000 - and said expenses likely would balloon as more problems were discovered.
"It's kind of like peeling an onion if you begin to get into maintenance issues," he said. "It's never-ending."
While the church does not have any immediate plans to expand onto the house's lot, doing so is a possibility members want to keep open.
"There's not a lot of land and space that's available downtown. Where our church facility is, we're basically landlocked, so that property that the Wilson House sits on is really the commodity that's valuable to us.
"That's just the reality of where we are. That property is important to us. It's really the only property we have for expansion," Jenkins said.
Rumors that the church plans to build a parking lot on the property are false, he said.
"We do have future ideas about possibly some expansion to our family activity center for our growing student ministry, and that's really the only place we have to do that," he said.
Beech Street has been downtown since 1904 and in 2010 committed $2 million to improving and preserving its historic buildings, including the white-domed sanctuary built in 1906, Jenkins said, so insinuations that the church does not care about history are inaccurate.
"We take great pride and care in our facilities and want them to look good and want them to be functional," he said, adding that the church must prioritize spending on the buildings it uses regularly.
The church considered options such as seeking grant funding for the house, but available grants are "incredibly competitive," come with regulatory strings attached and would not provide enough money, anyway, Jenkins said.
Jenkins also rejected the idea of turning the house into a business such as a bed and breakfast.
"We're a church. We're not a profit-making business. That's not our scope, that's not our mission, that's not why we believe we're here, and that doesn't fall into what we believe our purpose in Texarkana is," he said.
Despite rumors to the contrary, Jenkins would be glad to speak with anyone who would like to buy the house and move it off the lot, he said.
Beech Street has not yet applied for a city permit to demolish the house. According to a city ordinance, before the Public Works Department may issue a demolition permit for a historic landmark, the Historic District Commission must approve a "certificate of appropriateness" allowing it.
Jenkins said the church has not planned a course of action in case the Commission says no.
"We would hope that we would get a fair opportunity with the Historic Commission, and we would hope that they would be fair-minded to hear our side of the story as a property owner downtown in the Historic District and not come in with the mindset that they've already got their mind made up," he said.
The church is committed to proceeding legally and has consulted with city officials as its plans have developed, he said.
"Everything we've done, we've visited with the city about. They've given us the go-ahead to do that, and we continue to work through the process with them," Jenkins said. "We're not asking for any favors, and we want to do everything the right way."