Under a New Steeple, a Harlem Church Gets Out From Under Debt

February 2, 2012, 6:59 AM

By DAVID W. DUNLAP

David W. Dunlap/The New York TimesThe Ephesus Seventh-Day Adventist Church on Lenox Avenue.

Let’s say something good about mortgages.

O.K. They’re flammable.

The pastors, elders and members of the Ephesus Seventh-Day Adventist Church at Lenox Avenue and West 123rd Street are so happy to be living without debt that they restaged a mortgage-burning ceremony last week just to have a photographic record.

“We’ve paid it off — praise God,” the Rev. Dedrick L. Blue, the senior pastor, said on Wednesday. The $550,000 mortgage was held by the Atlantic Union Revolving Fund, a church-affiliated lending institution. Ephesus now has a credit of $62.09, Dr. Blue said.

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  Gregory HodgeGregory Hodge

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  Willie Davis for The New York Times

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  Willie Davis for The New York Times

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  David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

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  Nancy Rutledge

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  David W. Dunlap/The New York Times

In January, church leaders restaged the mortgage burning as a photo op. In the foreground are Alvaro Stewart and the Rev. Dedrick L. Blue. Behind them, from left, are Allen Price, Melissa Preddie, Joseph Merriweather, Otis Searcy, Franz DeFreitas and John Cunningham.

What occasioned the borrowing was an ambitious project to restore the exterior of the 125-year-old church, which was badly damaged in a 1969 fire. That was when it lost the tip of its slender steeple, a Harlem landmark for generations. The steeple was not replaced during the reconstruction in the early 1970s. But it was recreated and reinstalled five years ago, in the most obvious sign of the renovation project. Other work included repointing the facade after Allen Price, the church’s building chairman, discovered there was no mortar between the stone blocks.

“The only thing that was holding this building up was gravity itself,” Dr. Blue said.

The congregation — predominantly African-American, with a good many members from the Caribbean, Central America, Brazil and West Africa — numbers about 1,200 to 1,300. Not everyone thought the church should be spending so much money on a building project, Dr. Blue conceded. But he added that the structural revitalization went hand in hand with a desire by church leaders to bridge the divide between old and new Harlem. “It’s almost a symbol; not only of what we were but of what we are becoming,” he said.

The building, designed by John Rochester Thomas, was constructed as the Second Collegiate Church of Harlem. Ephesus has occupied it since 1930. It is included in the Mount Morris Park Historic District. Joseph Merriweather, a longtime member with personal memories of the fire, credited a Fire Department captain with having preserved the stained-glass windows.

The new steeple rode out Tropical Storm Irene last year, but so many roof tiles were damaged that water got into the pipe organ, swelling the wood and leather. It is still playable, Dr. Blue said, but much diminished. As he surveyed the main sanctuary, he envisioned a renovation that would bring back some of the 19th-century character of the original building and, among other touches, eliminate the “disco light” chandeliers installed in the 1970s.

Would such a project mean another mortgage? The pastor raised his eyebrows at the question, as if he wished the subject hadn’t come up. “To be honest with you,” he answered, “yes.”

Remember, though, that Ephesus already has $62.09 in hand.

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