Abandoned Churches, Broken Communities

The Cincinnati Enquirer published an article about aging empty church buildings in Cincinnati. You can read the full article and see photos of some of the churches at:

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20110918/NEWS01/109180338

As someone who supports historic preservation, it was a difficult article for me to read. I was glad to see that some churches are in the process of being "repurposed", but unfortunately there are many that are falling apart and in danger of being condemned and eventually torn down.
I was reminded of the similar story City Methodist Church in Gary, Indiana. (see photo above) Once one of the flagship churches of Indiana Methodism, City Church is now a decaying skeleton. Located at 577 Washington St in downtown Gary, Indiana, City Methodist was built in the 1920's to hold a congregation that had grown alongside the newly built City of the Century, with U.S. Steel covering $385,000 of the construction costs. The sanctuary could hold 950 including a choir. The building also held a church school, a gymnasium and an auditorium - Seaman Hall - named for the pastor who helped raise the $1 million to pay for the construction. The auditorium was used for musical and dramatic presentations, community meetings, and various social and educational events.
In its heyday, City Methodist boasted a membership of 3,000, and the church was home to one of the largest Skinner organs in the state of Indiana. By 1970, Sunday attendance had dwindled down to about 100 as suburbanization and white flight emptied Gary of its working class population. In 1975, the church closed its doors for good and City Methodist Church began its long decent into disrepair. Over the decades, various proposals have been floated to resurrect the building, including a center for the performing arts. Those plans were crushed in the Great Gary Arson of 1997. More recently, it has been suggested that what's left of the building could be turned into a European-style ruins garden. In the meantime, the City of Gary owns the property, but lack of funds, if not will, have left the structure to crumble in the brutal Midwestern weather.
In many ways, what's left of City Church stands as a monument to white flight, racism, and the inability of the church to adapt to its surroundings. Like so many churches today, it is an empty shell that seems irrelevant to its neighbors who desperately need to know the love of Christ in their lives. In fact, I think one of the messages that a congregation sends to a neighborhood when it leaves its empty building behind is that it doesn't care about that neighborhood or its people.
I know that the people and not the building are the church. In fact, the church did just fine for the first three hundred years of its existence without church buildings. Those early Christians gathered in people's homes for worship and fellowship. At the same time, church buildings can be effective tools for ministry and a visible sign and symbol of the presence of the church in a community.
I'm not sure what the answer is. I wish more churches had the faith and vision to adapt to their changing neighborhood demographics. I wish change was easier for church members. I wish more church leaders would help their congregations boldly step out in faith to reach outside their comfort zones. I wish there was a way for the church to remember our first love - Jesus - and share his love with all the world. Maybe in that love-transformed church, there would be fewer broken neighborhoods and fewer abandoned church buildings.
Thanks for being a part of my journey!

Friday Recap - Part 2

I'm continuing on with my recap of my big tourist day on Friday. After crossing the Ohio River on the Augusta Ferry, we were in the downtown historic area in Augusta, Kentucky and ready for our next tourist stop.

Rosemary Clooney Museum - The Rosemary Clooney House is owned by Dr. Steve Henry, former KY Lt. Gov., and his wife, Heather French Henry, former Miss America (who was born in Augusta). The museum was established to preserve Rosemary Clooney's house, to open it to the public and to house memorabilia from her life and career.

Starting in 1980 Rosemary began calling Augusta's 106 Riverside Drive home. Located on the banks of the Ohio River in historical Augusta, KY, this was her retreat from the demands of her career and a haven for rest between performances all over the world.
The house is a beautiful Federal style home. I think I was most surprised by how small it was. Knowing that Rosemary Clooney owned a huge mansion in Beverly Hills, her house in Augusta was tiny in comparison. The house has just two bedrooms that are not very big. In fact, they have Rosemary's big brass bed in her former bedroom and it took up half the room.

• The house is filled with all kinds of memorabilia from Rosemary Clooney's life including:
• childhood photos from her years in Maysville, KY
• the largest collection of White Christmas memorabilia anywhere in the world
• costumes worn by Bing, Bob, Vera, and Rosemary, as well as sketches by Edith Head and Bob Mackie for designs worn by Rosemary including the iconic red dress with white fur muff that Rosemary wore in White Christmas
• building materials from the demolition of her mansion at 1019 Roxbury Drive in Beverly Hills

  Our tour guide was a hoot. She talked almost non-stop. She has lived in Augusta for over fifty years and seemed to know all about Rosemary, her family, and career. She shared some behind the scenes stories about Rosemary's personal life and relationships.

The museum also includes a bunch of memorabilia from movies that George Clooney has stared in or directed. His costumes from Up in the Air and Leatherheads are on display as well as a bunch of his movie posters.

You can check out the Rosemary Clooney Museum at http://www.rosemaryclooney.org/index.html

The Parkview Country Inn - After spending time at Rosemary's place, we were hungry and ready for lunch. My friend Roslyn recommended that we try the lunch buffet at the Parkview Country Inn. The Parkview Country Inn was constructed in the early 1800's. The Inn originally included a tavern. The tavern area is now the main lobby and sitting area. The Inn is operated as a bed and breakfast.
The lunch buffet was quite tasty. We even splurged and ordered dessert. I had black raspberry cobbler with ice cream. It was delicious! Over lunch we laughed and visited and Mari and Roslyn got to know one another better.
When we came out of the Inn, we had a little excitement in trying to get out of town to our next destination. They were getting ready for Augusta's Heritage Days Festival and they had the road blocked off by vehicles in one direction and by barricades in the other. We narrowly escaped being trapped in Augusta forever by sneaking down an alley and cutting through a parking lot and then we were on our way.
You can check out the Parkview Country Inn at http://parkviewcountryinn.com/

Maysville, Kentucky - We moved on down the road next to Maysville, Kentucky. Maysville is another beautiful historic river town along the Ohio. The architecture is amazing. I am in awe of how many of the historic buildings had been and are being restored. The downtown area is like stepping back in time. I could hardly take it all in.
According to Wikipedia frontiersman Simon Kenton made the first settlement in the area in 1775 but was forced out by the western battles of the American Revolution. Returning in 1784, Kenton built a blockhouse at the site of Maysville and founded Kenton's Station (frontier fort) at a site three miles (5 km) inland. Kenton met new settlers at Limestone, as the landing place was called, and escorted them inland to his station. In 1786 the village which grew up near Kenton's Station was established by act of the Virginia General Assembly as the town of Washington. By this time John May had acquired the land at Limestone and Daniel Boone established a trading post and tavern there. In 1787 the little settlement was incorporated as Maysville, though the name Limestone persisted well into the 19th century.

Maysville was an important stop on the Underground Railroad. The abolitionist author Harriet Beecher Stowe visited the area in 1833 and witnessed a slave auction in front of the county court house in Washington, Kentucky. Stowe included the scene in her novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, published in 1852.

I wish we would have been able to spend more time in Maysville walking around the historic district. It's definitely some place that I want to visit again. You can learn more about Maysville at http://www.cityofmaysville.com/

Ripley, Ohio - We crossed the Ohio River again on the William H. Harsha Bridge which is a huge suspension bridge that is quite impressive. Once we crossed the river, we headed west again along the river towards Ripley, Ohio.
Colonel James Poage, a veteran of the American Revolution, arrived in the free state of Ohio from Staunton, Virginia in 1804 to claim the 1000 acres he had been granted in what was then the Virginia Military District. Poage was among a large group of veterans who received land grants beyond the Ohio for their service and freed their slaves when they settled there. Poage and his family laid out the town of Staunton in 1812; it was renamed in 1816 to honor General Eleazar Wheelock Ripley, an American officer of the War of 1812.

The proximity of the river and of the slave state of Kentucky on the opposite shore led to Ripley's role as an early stop on the Underground Railroad, a network of citizens helping slaves escape north to freedom. A number of prominent abolitionists lived in the town in the 1800s, mainly on Front Street near the river, including John Rankin, former slave John Parker, Thomas McCague, Thomas Collins and Dr. Alexander Campbell.
You can learn more about the history of Ripley at http://www.ripleyohio.net/

Rankin House - When we arrived in Ripley, we drove up the steep hill overlooking the town and Ohio River and arrived at the Rankin House. A National Historic Landmark, this was the home of Presbyterian minister John Rankin who is reputed to have been one of Ohio's first and most active "conductors" on the Underground Railroad. In addition, he wrote Letters on American Slavery, first published in book form in 1826, and among the first clearly articulated antislavery views printed west of the Appalachians. Letters on American Slavery became standard reading for abolitionists all over the United States by the 1830s. From 1822 to 1865, Rankin, along with his wife and children, assisted hundreds of escaped slaves in their trek to freedom. Located on the Ohio River, John Rankin's home (and Ripley, Ohio in general) were considered one of the first stations on this route of the Underground Railroad. It was here that Harriet Beecher Stowe heard the escaping slave's story which became the basis for part of her famous work, Uncle Tom's Cabin. John Parker, a Ripley abolitionist and former slave who was active in the Underground Railroad, wrote of Rankin, "At times attacked on all sides by masters seeking their slaves, [John Rankin and his sons] beat back their assailant, and held its threshold unsullied. A lighted candle stood as a beacon which could be seen from across the river, and like the north star was the guide to the fleeing slave." (see photo above)
Visiting the Rankin House was like standing on holy ground for me. I kept thinking about all of those who climbed that steep hill in their quest for freedom from oppression. I thought about the Rankin family and all those who risked their lives to help escaped slaves. Slavery is certainly the most vial institution ever conceived and we need to have landmarks like the Rankin House to remind us how far we have come as a nation and that there are still people today longing for freedom in our world.
You can learn more about the Rankin House at http://ohsweb.ohiohistory.org/places/sw14/index.shtml

Parker House - John Parker (1827-1900), a former slave, lived in this house, which has been designated a National Historic Landmark, from about 1853 until his death, and from this location planned many rescue attempts of slaves held captive in the "borderlands" of Kentucky. Born a slave in Norfolk, Virginia, Parker was sold at the age of eight to a doctor in Mobile, Alabama. The doctor's family taught Parker to read and write and allowed him to apprentice in an iron foundry where he was compensated and permitted to keep some of his earnings. Persuading an elderly female patient of the doctor's to purchase him, Parker, at the age of 18, bought his freedom from the woman with money earned from his apprenticeship. Parker moved to southern Ohio and around 1853 established a successful foundry behind his home in Ripley. Patenting a number of inventions from his foundry, Parker was one of only a few African Americans to obtain a U.S. patent in the 19th century. Though busy with his business, Parker was also active in the Underground Railroad and is believed to have assisted many slaves to escape from the Kentucky side of the Ohio River. Parker, who was well-known by regional slave-catchers, risked his own life when he secreted himself back into slave territory to lead fugitive slaves to safety in Ripley. Once the slaves were in Ripley, Parker would deliver them to Underground Railroad conductors in the town, such as John Rankin, who would harbor the fugitive slaves and help them to the next depot on the network. In the 1880s, Parker recounted his life as an Underground Railroad conductor in a series of interviews with journalist Frank M. Gregg. These interviews have recently been edited by Stuart Seely Sprague and published as His Promised Land: The Autobiography of John P. Parker Former Slave and Conductor on the Underground Railroad.
We had a great docent at the Parker House. He really knew all of the history and gave us a complete account of Parker's life. You can learn more about the Parker House at http://johnparkerhouse.org/

After our visit to the Parker House, we headed home. It was a long but really good day full of laughter, good friends, good food, and great American history. I am so grateful to Roslyn for doing all of the research before our trip and for driving us around. It was truly a day of blessings.
Thanks for being a part of my journey!

My Architect

I just finished watching the documentary My Architect. It was made by Nathaniel Kahn who is the son of architect Louis Kahn. Nathaniel tries to learn more about his father by traveling around and looking at the buildings he designed. Nathaniel never really got to know his father because his father had two other families and fathered two other children. Louis died when Nathaniel was only eleven years old.
I come away from watching this documentary with a couple of thoughts. First, Kahn the architect was indeed a genius in many ways. While many architects get many more commissions and have many more projects to their names than Kahn did, few are able to create the kinds of buildings that he did. He was an artist who knew much about helping people to experience light and shadow and space in powerful ways. A lot of his designs feel almost brutalistic in style on the exterior yet many of the interiors are awe inspiring. When most other architects were solidly aboard the modernist bandwagon, Kahn chose his own path. His buildings are not ornate or even complicated, but they are filled with a kind of simple sophistication that few other architects ever master. The Jatiyo Sangsad Bhaban or national assembly building in Bangladesh has a spiritual quality to it in the way it is situated and designed to bring in natural light.
The second thought I come away with from watching this documentary is how sad Louis Kahn's life was. He fathered two children out of wedlock. He had multiple affairs with his employees. He was at best an absentee father and husband. He did little to provide for his families or take much responsibility for their well-being. In many ways, he was a textbook example of a deadbeat dad.
It's these two contrasting themes that leave me feeling unsettled after watching this film. How can someone excel in creativity and at the same time fail so miserably in his relationships? Or, how can someone inspire so many people with his art and let down those who are closest (or should have been closest) to him.
Kahn is, of course, not alone in this. A lot of famous people have excelled in their careers and failed in their personal lives and personal relationships. Sadly, the list is pretty long: Frank Lloyd Wright, President Clinton, Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, Howard Hughes, Arnold Schwarzenegger and on and on. Even John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, was not really a very good family man. From all accounts, he was pretty much an absentee father and husband while he was about preaching and spreading holiness throughout the land.
So, then it makes me wonder if being a creative genius or gifted leader makes one a little bit lacking in the relationship department. Former Speaker of the House and now Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has recently stated that he was working so hard out of love for his country that this caused his first two marriages to fail. In other words, his extreme patriotism caused him to commit adultery - twice. Hmm . . . I'm not sure I buy that just as I'm not sure I buy Louis Kahn's expressions of love through postcards from India for the son that he rarely saw. It just seems to ring false to me. However, I cannot know what really was going on in any one's heart.
What I do know is that actions speak louder than words. We spend our time doing what we think is most important. For Louis Kahn what seemed to be most important was architecture. He excelled at it in many ways. He often slept on a piece of carpet in his office at night because he was always working and thinking about current and future projects. He was indeed a creative genius. It's just sad that he could not have found half as much passion for the people in his life whom he said he loved. Maybe then, he would have found a deeper and lasting peace as a husband, a father, an architect, and a human being.
Thanks for being a part of my journey!

Church Orientation Class

I attended the second and last orientation class at my new church home. It was again a great experience. I felt inspired and very excited as I heard more about the church's ministries and future dreams. I feel like I am coming to the church at a really exciting time. There is change in the air and under the leadership of the pastors, I think that the church is poised to make an even larger impact in Cincinnati and in the world.
Today we talked about the expectations of church membership. We also learned more about the church's specific ministries in Cincinnati and around the world. All of the activities and opportunities for service and witness make my head spin. It seems as if God is up to some wonderful things as they move forward into the future.
I also got a chance to talk with one of the associate pastors who shared some about her ministry and plans that she has to help the congregation members care for one another. She told about a life-changing prayer ministry that is helping to transform the church and people's hearts. Her story really touched my heart.
After the orientation, three of us stayed around for a tour of the building and grounds. I must say, it is one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen. It's a Gothic revival design built in the 1920's. There are some really amazing stories connected with the church. What I most love about it, is the church building is not treated like a museum piece but it is used nearly every day of the week. As ministry has changed, the congregation has not been afraid to make changes to their building in order to adapt to new ways of reaching people for Christ. We also learned on the tour that just last year, the congregation was able to get the building on the National Register of Historic Places. It's truly a wonderful building that is a useful tool for helping people to grow in their faith. I really love worshipping there.
I am very excited about the opportunities that I will have for ministry in this new church home. It's a great place to be and I look forward to meeting more people and sharing my gifts with this community of faith.
I hope you are having a great weekend. Thanks for being a part of my journey!

Fun Day with Friends on the Town

I had a fun day today seeing some new sights the Cincinnati area with my friends Karen and Scott. Here's a rundown of our day:

• We first went to Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum in Cincinnati. The cemetery, dating back to 1844, was started by a group of people who were inspired by rural cemeteries outside of Paris, France and Boston, Massachusetts. The group hired Adolph Strauch, a renowned landscape architect of the day, to design the 400 acre cemetery. There are some beautiful Gothic style chapels, ponds, and exotic trees on the grounds of the cemetery. The list of people buried in the cemetery reads like a who's who of Cincinnati. Names like Proctor, Gamble, Taft, and Kroger are engraved into some huge amazing tombstones. There are heads of industry, church leaders, Supreme Court Justices, abolitionists, Civil War generals, politicians, and sports figures all buried in this amazing cemetery. It was a beautiful sight to see. Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum has been listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places and designated as a U.S. National Historic Landmark District.
• After the cemetery, we headed over to the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal. The building was originally built as a passenger train station. The building is designed in the Art Deco style and was built in 1933. The rotunda of the building features the largest semi-dome in the western hemisphere measuring 180 feet wide and 106 feet high. The rotunda is decorated with huge mosaics depicting local industry. The building is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places and has been designated as a U.S. National Historic Landmark. While you can still catch the Amtrak train there, most of the building has been repurposed and houses the Cincinnati History Museum, the Museum of Natural History and Science, an Omnimax Theater, the Cincinnati Historical Society Library, Duke Energy Children's Museum, and the Cincinnati Railroad Club. I also discovered through a little research on Wikipedia that the design of the building inspired the look of the Hall of Justice, the iconic headquarters on the animated series of the 1970s and 1980s, the Superfriends.
• We then drove to the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood in Cincinnati. Over-the-Rhine is the largest, most intact urban historic district in the United States. It is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places and designated as a U.S. Historic District. It contains the largest collection of Italianate architecture in the United States is an example of an intact 19th century urban neighborhood. The neighborhood was built in the 19th century during a period of extensive German immigration to the Cincinnati area. There is a huge resurgence of development in the area. Many housing developers are coming into the neighborhood and turning many of the old buildings into upscale lofts.
• The reason we went to Over-the-Rhine was to go to Findlay Market in Cincinnati. Findlay Market is the oldest continuously operated public market in the state of Ohio. The Market is also on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. It was started in 1852 and built with newest iron framework technology of the day. Findlay Market is open Wednesday through Sunday but the big day for the Market is Saturday when area farmers set up booths to sell their produce. It was a really neat thing to see. I don't know that I have ever been any place quite like it before.
• After the Findlay Market, we headed for lunch at Newport on the Levee which is an urban mall just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati in Newport, Kentucky. We had lunch at Claddah Irish Pub which has become one of my new favorite restaurants in the area. We also checked out an art gallery and a bookstore after lunch.

After all of this activity, we headed back to Scott and Karen's house and Karen and I watched a Netflix movie before I headed home for the evening. It was a full, fun day. I enjoyed getting to know my new home region a little better and seeing some of the great sights of Cincinnati. I'm grateful for time with Karen and Scott. We had a lot of fun together laughing and enjoying one another's company.
Thanks for being a part of my journey!

Movie Theater Memories

I have shared with you through this blog on many occasions my love for movies. I don't know when I first began to really pay attention to movies but I can remember some of the first movies that I saw as a child. One of my earliest memories of going to movies is when my family went to the drive-in movie theater when I was very young for a double feature of Bambi and Swiss Family Robinson. I think that was the beginning for me of what would be a life-long enjoyment of movies.
Over the long weekend, some of my friends were talking about movie theaters that no longer exist in the South Bend/Mishawaka, Indiana region. Most of the drive-in theaters are gone as are most of the grand movie palaces in downtown South Bend. Along with this, most of the theaters from my childhood are now gone as well. I thought I would share with you some memories of theaters from days gone by.

Morris Performing Arts Center - Previously named the Palace Theater and then the Morris Civic Auditorium, the Morris Performing Arts Center is a wonderfully restored theater in downtown South Bend. Originally built in the 1920's as a Vaudeville theater, This is where I saw several traveling Broadway shows as well as the first place I ever went to hear a symphony concert. I only saw one movie at the Morris - Gone With the Wind. When I was in high school, they had a free showing of Gone With the Wind at the Morris and I went with my friend Diane to see it. It was a marvelous evening.

The State Theater - I did an Internet search and I don't think it exists as a movie theater any more. The most recent article I found on this theater was that it was being sold by the church that had bought it a few years earlier. The State was the theater that I remember going to for a Saturday morning matinee with my friend Tom when we were in elementary school. I think the movie was a black-and-white monster movie - Godzilla vs. King Kong - or something like that. What I remember most about the movie theater was that there was a bat flying around in the theater. It kept flying in front of the screen and I thought it was part of the movie until it flew out over my head.

The Tivoli Theater - The Tivoli was the only old movie theater in my hometown of Mishawaka, Indiana of which I am aware. I never knew it as The Tivoli while I was growing up. Instead, it was for most of my growing up years a pornographic theater. I never saw a movie there but I did see pictures of the old theater after it had been closed and neglected for many years. Shortly after this, they tore this once grand theater down. I'm sure the city is glad that the x-rated move business is gone from downtown; however, it's too bad that some rich investor could not have come in and rescued this theater. It was a part of my hometown's history and now there's just a CVS drugstore standing in its place.

The Forum Theater - As my friends and I were talking over lunch about old movie theaters, I realized that the theater where I first saw Star Wars and ET, The Forum Theater, is long gone. I don't remember when it was torn down and I'm not sure what is now standing in its place. I can still remember the wide-eyed awe I felt as I watched Star Wars for the first time. I also remember the tears that I shed as I watched the ending of ET with Kimmo, a foreign exchange student from Finland at my high school.

The River Park Theater - I only saw a movie at the River Park Theater one time that I recall. It was an old movie theater in the River Park neighborhood of South Bend. I went with my friend Mary in high school to see The Gods Must Be Crazy. It was an interesting evening. I think the humor went right over our heads and we found ourselves laughing at the movie but not for the reasons the writers and director intended. I think this theater is now a photography studio.

Town and County Theaters - One of my memories of this theater is that my cousin Susie worked there. I remember seeing her working in the ticket booth when we went to see a movie at this theater in Mishawaka. The Town and Country Theaters are where I saw a lot of movies when I was growing up including several Herbie the Love Bug movies. This is where my friend Sheri and I first saw the movie Grease. This is also the theater at which I attended the midnight showing of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom on my very last day of high school during my senior year. The movie is not my favorite of the trilogy but I still think of it fondly when I remember that group of friends who stayed up late to celebrate the end of school together. I'm not sure if I could stay awake through the movie at that hour nowadays.

Scottsdale Mall Theaters - I don't remember seeing a lot of movies at these theaters in South Bend when I was growing up. In later years, when I was serving churches in South Bend, I went to the newer Scottsdale Theaters a lot. It was at these newer theaters that I was actually interviewed by a local television news reporter after seeing Batman Forever staring Val Kilmer on opening night. The entire Scottsdale Mall no longer exists. It's all been torn down and replaced by a big strip mall.

University Park Mall Theaters - I saw a lot of movies at this theater as well in my hometown of Mishawaka. This is where I first saw Raiders of the Lost Ark with my youth group after we had just returned from a week at summer church camp. Along with this, one of the most memorable movie-going experiences I've ever had happened at University Park Mall Theaters. This is where I first saw the Rocky Horror Picture Show. I went with a group of friends from high school who were all in drama. I think the movie started at midnight. My friends knew all the lines and brought all the necessary props. Several people dressed up as their favorite characters in the movie. I remember throwing toast around the theater and running down in front of the screen to dance the Time Warp. I think now how the theater employees must have hated cleaning that theater every week. However, what I really remember is having a lot of silly fun with friends.

I am grateful for the gift of movies in my life. I am grateful for the way they entertain me, inspire me, challenge me to think, expose me to places and cultures different from my own, and help me to understand the human experience in new ways. I am grateful for those theaters that no longer exist. It's amazing to think about how many theaters are only now a memory. In their day, they were places where I went to experience the magic that only Hollywood can make. I sat beside friends and family in those darkened theaters and for a little while was taken away to some truly amazing places and met some unforgettable characters.
Thanks for being a part of my journey!

Strange Day

Today was a strange day at the office. Of the ten staff members that work at least part-time in the TriState Habitat for Humanity office, I was the only one in the office. There were supposed to be two of us in the office but our receptionist called in sick. So, it was just me. This is not a good thing. I really stink at managing phone calls when all three lines are ringing at the same time. I also sound like I have no clue what is going on (which I don't) when people call to ask questions about various things. If it isn't something I deal with regularly, I don't even know how to refer people.
I did get out of the office and away from the phones today to attend a recruitment event for families who might be interested in applying for our home ownership program. It was a great meeting after I found it. It was in my new home town of Hamilton, Ohio. However, I really don't know Hamilton all that well yet. I went to the building downtown where I thought it the meeting was being held and went to a few different floors and asked a lot of questions only to discover that my meeting was in a totally different building. The building I needed to be in was about two blocks away and up three flights of stairs. I guess it was good to get my exercise and I'm glad it wasn't as hot as it's been. However, I was really sweaty by the time I arrived at the right building.
My meeting was held in the historic old courthouse in Hamilton. I was expecting it to be a bit more historically preserved than it is. I guess Butler County must be in a lot of financial trouble because the courthouse really needs a lot of help. It could be a beautiful building if it was given a little love and care. Unfortunately, it is really not in good condition. It smelled really old and was very dark and looked kind of abandoned. That part was sad. The exterior is an eclectic mix of architectural styles. (see photo). It's not my favorite county courthouse but I guess it is visually interesting.
My meeting was really good. I was able to answer questions and help get the word out about Habitat. I love it when I see people get excited about the possibility of owning their own home.
I am now in full weekend mode. I hope to be able to something fun. I know Netflix will be on my agenda. I hope you have a great weekend. Thanks for being a part of my journey!