Soon, the Alexander Memorial Baptist Church, a historic, century-old black church in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington D.C., will be no more, according to WJLA.
The church is being sold for $6.5 million to a developer, with plans to turn it into either condominiums or townhouses, according to the news station. The reason for the sale is decreasing attendance at the church, WJLA reports.
“That’s my home,” church member Charlotte Thomas, 76, told WJLA. “It’s gonna be gone, and we really don’t have no place to go.”
Congregation members told the news station that the pastor, the Rev. Jesse Plater, who declined to speak with WJLA, has not secured a place for them to worship. Members, noting that Plater is currently searching for a school auditorium for services, told the station that the property he wanted to buy in Maryland had already been sold.
“So if we don’t have a place to go, why are you still selling the church?” Alfred May, another congregant, pointed out.
Thomas is also concerned about the seemingly cheap selling price for the historic building, given its Georgetown location. “I guess he thinks $6 million is a lot of money, but if you gonna get another church … build another church, that’s no money,” she said.
Read more at WJLA.