When Neighborhoods Go Awry

     Lafayette, Indiana

Saint Mary's Cathedral

It is a beautiful building, grand in both style and setting. Perched halfway up the hillside east of downtown the spire can be seen for a long distance.  When I moved to this neighborhood almost 30 years ago I thought of that cathedral as a positive feature.  Most of the homes in our neighborhood date from the period in which the church was built in the 1860's up to about 1900.  A number of the homes were built by parishioners of that church. 

Like most of the older neighborhoods near the city center,  many of the homes here had been converted to multiple unit apartments.  Big old houses cut up into anywhere from 2 to 7 or 8 smaller apartments,  but there were still some outstanding examples of homes that were single-family, and owner-occupied.  

I suppose you might say I was naive in my initial assessment of neighborhood dynamics. There were perfectly obvious examples of neighborhoods that proved my belief that this church was going to be a positive influence in our neighborhood was a Pollyanna daydream. 

I had grown up on a White County farm but most of my adult life has been spent in Lafayette. I had already been a beat cop in Lafayette for 12 years when we opted to purchase the old Shambaugh home on Columbia.  Had I only thought about other neighborhoods in my own town where large well-funded institutions sit at the heart of a neighborhood I would have realized my views were excessively optimistic.  The two local hospitals were perfect examples. Where those institutions once occupied perhaps a square block they eventually expanded to large multi-block campuses and neighborhoods lost dozens of homes as a result of that growth. It is a bit of sad irony that both hospitals eventually left the neighborhoods they had hollowed out.   Purdue University has devoured blocks of residential stock in West Lafayette through it's history.  Other downtown churches had expanded their footprints within their neighborhoods.  I had seen all of that. 

If I was looking for a long lasting stable neighborhood why had I ignored all the signs?  Why did I think the neighborhood around St. Mary's Cathedral was exempt from growth or change?  I simply can not answer that question. We loved the house and the location was excellent for a busy family, convenient to schools, work, shopping and to Purdue. The risk seemed outweighed by the advantages.  

Not long after we settled in and got to know some of our new neighbors I thought it might be a good idea if we had a neighborhood association like some of the other neighborhoods we were hearing about.  Ninth Street Hill and Perrine neighborhoods had formed groups and had tackled issues in an effort to make positive improvements to their respective neighborhoods.  They had some successes which encouraged us.   I remember walking from door to door meeting all the property owners who still lived in their homes and many of those who rented apartments too.  I remember approaching St. Mary's in an effort to get them involved in our new group.  A few of our very first meetings were actually hosted in a basement meeting room in St. Mary's school.  I say "hosted", they opened the room for us but did not attend any of the meetings we had there, neither priests, nor officers, nor any members made any effort to join our group although for the first year or so we tried to interest them in doing that.  Eventually, we decided it was more fun to take turns meeting in one another's homes for our monthly meetings. It seemed that St. Mary's wasn't really interested in getting to know their neighbors.  

When we arrived in the neighborhood there were 33 owner-occupied homes in our neighborhood.  The original boundaries of our district were from the old Wabash RR tracks to Five Points and from Main street to South Street.   Today there are a dozen fewer owner-occupied homes.  St. Mary's church has taken down two fine historic homes that were owner-occupied when we arrived, besides two other houses and one small business building.  Today they again want to tear down one of the true jewels of the neighborhood and one that retains its original exterior appearance including the original wrought iron fence, the original porch trim, & original carriage house. Unlike many old structures, this one looks just like it did in the 1880's when it was built. 

Those of us who own these old homes and value the neighborhoods understand that sometimes it just makes no practical sense to attempt to rehab and reuse a building.  A building uncared for many years eventually reaches a certain point of decay that makes preservation impossibly expensive to repair. The house at 1014 South Street now cleared for destruction after the waiting period ends does not appear to be one of those impossible cases.   From all appearances, this house is far from that point.  When the church bought the property several years ago neighbors were given the idea that their intention was to use the house as a Rectory.  Now we learn that what they want to do is wreck it and build a new Rectory from scratch on the lot.  

I can only speak for myself but what I've learned about living near St. Mary's that it is something like living in the near vicinity to a supermassive black hole and you never know what's going to be swallowed up next.  I might also use the analogy that the church is killing the neighborhood, not in a single dramatic fashion but...death by a thousand cuts. It's a slow way, but ultimately effective. Most frustrating of all is that church leaders refuse to talk to neighbors....not just now, but every time they have taken this sort of destructive action...there was never any talking until it was much too late to find alternate solutions. Clearly, the relationship between the Church and the neighborhood is broken, if it were a marriage it would qualify for a divorce.  Maybe it can be repaired, but it has taken 30 years to reach this state so I don't have a lot of hope.  #stopthedestruction #save1014southstreet #findanotherway