The Toledo City Council has already committed to saving St. Anthony as a landmark in the Junction Neighborhood and should stick with the plan.
No one should be surprised that saving the former Roman Catholic church would be a heavy lift. The old church, which hosted many a wedding and First Communion over its century of service to the Polish community that once peopled the area, has been empty for almost two decades now.
The church at Junction and Nebraska avenues was slated for demolition when, in response to pleas from the community, the Catholic Diocese donated it to the land bank in 2019.
It is in need of repairs for it be reutilized as a neighborhood community center, possibly for a boxing gym. Already earmarked for this project is $4 million in federal Housing and Urban Development funds. A vote against the $900,000 would jeopardize that funding.
In March, bricks and debris fell from the parapet of the old church. The finding of the Lucas County Land Bank is that the building can be preserved. It should be.
Toledo has a lot of old landmark buildings, and to the extent possible they should be preserved. The city itself cannot, however, save every building. There are other churches in Toledo that are also in danger of collapse. A church on Bancroft Street has a hole in its roof big enough for a tractor-trailer to go through, as is clearly visible from the street. The building needs to be demolished and fast.
The city’s experience with St. Anthony’s has been difficult, and we have seen that there are no easy uses for an old church. Catholic Bishop Daniel Thomas has made it clear that he is not handing over any more former Catholic Churches to pie-in-the-sky plans for those old churches to become community centers. Furthermore, it is well within the church’s purview to prefer demolition than to see a sacred space become an eyesore.
It would be ironic if the same city council that wants to force the Catholic Diocese of Toledo to maintain indefinitely Sacred Heart, a former church in East Toledo that has no viable future use, would have refused to invest in its own property, the former church of St. Anthony.
Unlike Sacred Heart, St. Anthony’s anchors a commercial corner and would be an appropriate place for business and community uses — if the building can be made safe and modern.
When the campaign to save St. Anthony’s began in 2018, the preliminary estimate was that it needed a mere $150,000 immediately to be stabilized, secured, and mothballed for potentially many years.
It’s obviously going to take more than that.
This stately building can be a beacon of hope in the Junction Neighborhood. It could even become a church again sometime well into the future. Junction needs this kind of investment to encourage residents to continue to fight for a healthy neighborhood.
A building like this is a point of pride in a city that treasures its history.
Not every old church can be saved. Some should. St. Anthony of Padua is the patron of saint of lost things. Junction has lost much of its vitality. St. Anthony can help get it back.
First Published November 25, 2024, 4:30 a.m.
