YSU considers demolishing church on Wick Ave. to put in a parking lot

By Harold Gwin

The previous owner plans to retrieve and sell two large stained-glass windows.

YOUNGSTOWN — The former Pilgrim Collegiate Church at the corner of Wick and Lincoln avenues may fall to the wrecking ball.

Youngstown State University trustees voted to buy the property in December 2007 for $315,000, and the university took ownership last spring.

The original plan called for the church’s tenant, New Beginnings Outreach Ministries, to continue using the sanctuary while the university spent about $500,000 to convert the attached classroom wing to university use as office space.

New Beginnings, however, moved out late last year, relocating to a church on Schenley Avenue, leaving the building without a tenant.

The university has no use for the sanctuary and isn’t likely to look for another congregation as a tenant, said John Hyden, YSU executive director of facilities.

It’s unlikely that the university will move forward with the original plan to renovate the classroom area either, he said.

A final decision hasn’t been made, but the church property will probably be demolished and the space used for parking, he said.

The sanctuary has two large stained-glass windows, one on the Lincoln Avenue side and the other on the Wick Avenue side, said Jack Barton, former president of both Pilgrim Collegiate and its successor, Faith Community Church, which sold the property to YSU.

The sales agreement gives Faith Community the right to retrieve those two large windows in the event the church is torn down, and Barton said he is working on that now, contacting dealers in stained glass across the country.

“The windows will be sold,” Barton said.

There are perhaps 20 smaller stained-glass windows in the church and some leaded glass as well. Those aren’t protected in the sales agreement and are the property of YSU, Barton said.

YSU, after learning that in 2007 that the property might be for sale, decided to buy it to protect the southeastern corner of the campus from any type of commercial development.

The church is directly across the street from historic Jones Hall built in 1931.

Buying the property gave the university ownership of nearly the entire block bounded by Wick, Lincoln and Rayen avenues and Phelps Street. Campus Book and Supply at 23 Lincoln Ave. is the only remaining privately owned property on the block.

gwin@vindy.com