They Paved Paradise and Put Up a Parking Lot

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They call it “Progressive Change” or “Innovation” perhaps.  It’s a long succession of change that has been happening to our city here in Greenville, SC for the past few years and is projected to continue.

Pendleton Street Baptist Church has been around since the 1890’s.  This location near downtown Greenville in the West End district is going to be the home of 270 apartment dwellers, and their parking garage, in the form of large rectangular buildings.  In exchange we are losing a bit of the charm in the demolition of places like Pendleton Street Baptist Church and a majority of the block it sits on.  The attraction resulting from what was originally built and/or revitalized in our downtown area has brought in outside developers who are making decisions for our city with their ideas about what we should be.

This change also comes at a price for those who already live in the area.  Developers are buying up existing property and leaving those who already live there in a bind due to skyrocketing rent & taxes.

I visited the church today to take pictures of this beautiful building before too much change happens.

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you can see the lights from Fluor Field across the street from the vestibule of the church

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There was an open bible in the back, and I stopped by to find this ironic verse of Solomon building a house of the Lord.  True, a church is it’s people who belong to it.  But it is still a tug on the heartstrings to think of all the lives that have changed through this building.

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You can read more about the projected development here , the West End Neighborhood where the church is located has a petition to urge modifications to the proposed design

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