Shaw’s Church With No Stairs
29 09 2008Ok what happen to the stairs of this Church on Temperance Ave off U Street? When we walked by it looked like there was some construction work being done around the property but not on the building. It also looks like the building would have had a hard time holding more than a few people at a time, let alone a congregation of worshipers.
Anyone know what’s up with this building?
[Photo: DCMetrocentric]
Are these the types of churches that sometimes hold up restaurants from getting liquor licenses? (the whole thing that hurt vegetate, etc.) If so, I call shenanigans.
interesting. i thought it was the same property as that house to the left. its not a former carriage house?
Whatever it’s going to be, the exterior gives it a lot of potential.
I think it was a childcare a few years ago, you can see a sign in the window.
Under new ownership. Building permit pending that would connect the corner rowhouse with the former garage. Whether you call it carriage house or a garage, you can see that the modern window left of the cross is a blocked-in large door. See the horizontal wood header floating in the brickwork. That’s where the top of the door used to be. I suppose the bottom of the door would have been high enough that a wagon or early truck could have been backed-up to the building and loaded/unloaded. I would guess a mechanic or tradesman used it as a shop or storage space just before 1900.
Former owners had the “church” in back to avoid paying property taxes as far as I can tell.
[…] is along Temperance Ave between 12th and 13th street Northwest. This block also happens to be where the strange empty stairless church is located, so it will have some interesting company. We are always surprised by how many empty lots and […]
there were stairs a year ago:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/niawag/1720722758/in/set-567184/
[…] the mystery church building with no entrance just off U Street? Well it looks like an entire brick addition has been added to the building next to it and you can […]