As we sit here on Good Friday, we have news about another church that’s slated to be demolished in order to feed the ever-hungry development monster. The newest House of God on the outs is St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church, according to Hidden City. The church, located on the northwest corner of 3rd & Reed, was built before 1895, and closed last month.

The church

Hidden City tells us that a salvage crew was on the site last month, preserving pews and the like for reuse in another church or perhaps a yet unopened gastropub. In the coming months, the building will be demolished, and Passyunk Post shares that twelve new homes will rise in its place. This will mark the third large new townhome development to come to light in this neighborhood this month. You may recall, we previously told you about six homes coming to 2nd & Reed, and eleven homes replacing the burned-out warehouse at 2nd & Wharton.

Closeup of the church

Those projects can be considered with a mostly positive outlook- after all, who could complain about homes replacing a vacant lot or a blighted property? This one is a little tougher to swallow, as the beautiful building not only creates a connection to the area’s history but also adds to the architectural diversity of the neighborhood. Twelve new cookie-cutter houses won’t have the same impact, we’d posit.

We can certainly see how adaptive reuse would have been a challenge for this structure, but it doesn’t make us any less bummed to see the building disappear. Sadly, we’re seeing this more and more in growing neighborhoods, and we don’t see the trend stopping any time soon.