MANSFIELD — The St. John’s United Church of Christ building and property at 68 Park Ave. E. is expected to be under new ownership by this weekend.
The church building previously sold during a live on-site auction Dec. 5 to a private New York investor for $120,000. That buyer has since defaulted on paying its bid amount to the title company by the deadline date, according to Faith Proietti, pastor of St. John’s UCC.
Proietti said Tuesday the church board voted this past Sunday to accept an offer of $65,000 from Matthew Wade of New London.
All other bidders from the Dec. 5 auction were contacted by the auctioneer to see if they wanted to submit a final offer.
“We’re actually closing with him this coming Friday (Jan. 10),” Proietti said.
Next steps for St. John’s include moving out of the Park Avenue East church building and into its new space at Mansfield’s Hope Lutheran Church.
Ed Olson, church board president at St. John’s UCC, said a one-year lease agreement with Hope Lutheran Church has been signed and is to take effect Feb. 1.
Opportunity awaits
The architecture of the 1912 church building was something which caught Wade’s eye.
“They’re built out of stone, tons of amazing woodwork, big open spaces, huge windows, so a lot of history there,” he said Tuesday.
As far as his plans for the building, Wade said he is taking a slow approach before making any decisions about future use of the 35,000 square-foot space — which includes a 400-seat sanctuary.
“At that point (after Friday’s closing) I’ll really start to look at it more in-depth and see what the possibilities are,” he said.
After being outbid in December, Wade received a call a few weeks later from auctioneer Mike Berland of Chartwell Real Estate Auctions explaining the opportunity to bid was available again.
“I’m excited to see what we can do with it, but going to take it slow for sure,” Wade said.
Olson said the church board had no concerns about Friday’s scheduled closing after the initial buyer defaulted.
“I’ve met with the title company this afternoon,” Olson said Wednesday. “We’ve signed all of the closing documents. They’re set to close on Friday. Today’s Wednesday, so another 48 hours everything should be completed.
The church board president said while taking Wade and some of his extended family members on a tour of the building, he had a “fairly loose idea of using it as an event center.”
(Below are more photos of the exterior of St. John’s United Church of Christ in Mansfield.)
A new vision and mission for St. John’s
St. John’s will be leasing five rooms at Hope Lutheran Church. Two rooms will be used for pastoral offices, two for storage and one room for music, Olson said.
The lease agreement also allows the St. John’s congregation to use Hope Lutheran’s sanctuary for its service — which he said will likely be Sundays around 11 a.m.
“According to the lease, we’ll be able to utilize, on a scheduled basis, their fellowship hall (and) probably use of the kitchen,” Olson said.
During certain holiday periods such as Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter, the two congregations may join together for worship.
Olson said coming together would provide opportunities for combined choirs and worship, making the services “more meaningful” for everyone.
Proietti echoed similar sentiments. She said the transition will provide time “to figure out who the new St. John’s really is” and how the congregation wants to be involved in the community.
Over the years, church officials and the congregation have simply been unable to keep up with or afford needed improvements of the 35,000 square-foot building.
“It’s been very difficult for a lot of our congregation because they have four or five generations in this church,” the pastor said. “A lot of their history and their family history, grandparents and whatever, this is all that they know.”
Attempting to keep pace with the maintenance and upkeep of the Park Avenue East building has taken time away from St. John’s ability to focus on ministry.
The opportunity to “start over” is one Proietti is viewing as positive.
“Now we get to come together (with Hope Lutheran), use more space together, serving mission and our vision together and being a more active congregation with them,” she said.
“We both see that as a real positive. As sad as we are, we’re also very hopeful.”