Up for sale

Last week, we noticed a ‘For Sale’ sign go up at New Temple Baptist Church at 810 S 23rd St. The property is listed for $450K by Volpe Real Estate, and offers 2500 interior sqft over two stories. The building is located at the corner of 23rd St. and Madison Sq., a street that replaces Webster St. between 22nd St. and Grays Ferry Ave. The first two blocks of Madison Sq. are pedestrian-only, with fenced-in gardens in the middle of the “street” and unique historically designated homes.

Looks pretty

As you can see in the photo, the church was built in 1911- this particular congregation has been there since at least the 1940’s. Many of the houses on the block go back another fifty years. We don’t imagine that another church will purchase this property- such a small building for such a high price just doesn’t seem like a good fit. We can imagine a condo conversion for the building, or perhaps a conversion into a super-unique single family home. What we can’t see is a developer making a viable case to tear the building down- and that’s a good thing indeed.

Just keep those ceiling beams exposed, mkay? Blurry image from Trend.