WEST DURHAM CHURCH OF GOD / ABC STORE
West Durham Church of God, looking northwest from Hillsborough Road, mid-1950s
(Courtesy John Schelp)
The West Durham Church of God was organized in 1937 and initially located in a small frame structure on Case Street.
Although the church had only 23 members after World War II, it grew rapidly. Under the leadership of new pastor Roland Verrico, construction of a new masonry church at 2806 Hillsborough Road was initiated. The congregation used a temporary structure on the construction site until the church was completed in 1947. In 1949, the church purchased a parsonage at 1022 Rosehill Avenue.
Easter Sunday, mid-1950s.
(Courtesy John Schelp)
Within 10 years, the congregation had grown to more than 300 members, with a Sunday School enrollment of more than 600.
In 1986, the congregation elected to move to Horton Road, where they renamed themselves the Horton Road Church of God. The State liquor salesfolk decided that the church site would be a good location for an ABC store. The former sanctuary on Hillsborough was demolished (although the cornerstone was taken to the new church.) How I wish the ABC store had engaged in some adaptive reuse!
Find this spot on a Google Map.
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8 comments:
Are you suggesting a liquor store should have just occupied an old church?
If so, I think that's the greatest idea ever.
Exactly.
GK
i have worshipped there, i do believe.
I would rename it the Church of the Holy Spirit(s). I cannot believe there was a church there before.
Where is John Shelp of the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association? (I put that there because he regularly googles for it, so maybe he'll show up that way...) He's got a bunch of great stories involving this church, I think involving the pastor running off with the church secretary, and it being one of the leading voices for temperance in the city (and now replaced by a liquor store).
Is John Schelp sure of the 1948 date on the photo? I could almost swear I see my grandmother holding me, and I didn't grace the world until 1954. Very eerie!
Retired English teacher, check out our webpage on the West Durham Church of God...
http://www.owdna.org/History/history9.htm
Longtime members of the church said they thought the date of the photograph was 1950.
Send me an email if/when you determine you are the baby in the photo and we can change the date on the webpage.
thanks,
John Schelp (bwatu AT yahoo.com)
FYI: That's a 1953 Ford in that photo of the church that is labeled as taken in the 1940s.
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