Historic Black Charlotte church was named a landmark. Now it’s being restored — sort of

A plan by a Charlotte historic Black university to stabilize a century-old church has changed, with only portions of the structure now being preserved.

Mount Carmel Baptist Church, located just steps from the Johnson C. Smith University main campus, has been long identified as a building worth saving for sentimental and historic reasons. The building earned local historic landmark status in 1983, and efforts over the years attempted to preserve the entire relic that’s been a bedrock of the African-American community in west Charlotte. But Johnson C. Smith, which owns the property, told The Charlotte Observer on Monday only a portion will be restored.

“Due to years of deterioration and to keep the community safe, Johnson C. Smith University has decided to preserve just a portion of Old Mt. Carmel Baptist Church,” Gabrielle Allison, a JCSU spokeswoman, said in an email.

The current project calls for preserving the church’s bell tower and front-facing facade that points toward the 400 block of Campus Street, according to the most updated plan.

Construction workers with large machinery in tow now surround the worn building that shows obvious signs of age. The heart of the church — where Sunday services and programs were once held — has been reduced to brick and wooden rubble.

Still, large crosses affixed to white-painted interior walls remain in place.

After work on the bell tower and facade is complete, Johnson C. Smith officials said the remainder of the property will be untouched. The school said it hasn’t decided how the land where the church sits will be used.

Plan to stabilize historic church

The overhaul, targeted for completion in February, is scaled back from a previous plan. That plan eyed stabilizing the building so work can be done to improve its interior after the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission voted last year to request up to $850,000 from Mecklenburg County commissioners to move ahead, the Observer previously reported.

JCSU also worked with the city and Raleigh-based Preservation North Carolina to assist with preservation efforts over the years.

In a June 2022 Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission report on the church, the building was described as “in a high state of disrepair that endangered its basic integrity.”

The then-proposed project would have removed much of the building’s interior framing and millwork. It also called for stabilizing and protecting the building’s shell and interior architectural elements.

The current concession still maintains a significant semblance of the church designed in 1921 by Louis Asbury, a Charlotte native who was one of the first licensed architects in North Carolina, according to church and JCSU records.

“They are following through what was agreed upon by North Carolina Preservation and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission,” Jack Thomson, regional director of the Preservation NC Western office, said about Johnson C Smith’s plan. “While not ideal, we are happy the school is moving forward despite (the church’s) dilapidated condition and the challenges the college faced in trying to preserve the church over time.”

All the investment to restore the church — even a piece of it — still matters for the school to preserve an essential symbol of the Black community.

Church is landmark of Charlotte neighborhood

The Mount Carmel church has served as a cultural landmark and a centerpiece of the Biddleville neighborhood.

It was described in a 2022 Observer story by JCSU facilities director Erna Perkins Jones as a place people went to find community and “spiritual awakenings.”

The history of the church dates back to a small prayer group in Biddleville in 1878, according to the Historic Landmarks Commission records. The group first gathered at residents’ homes or elsewhere in the community until the church acquired its own formal space. By 1947, the church membership had grown to 979 people.

A classroom wing was added to the building. In 1977, the church moved to a much larger, previously built church on Tuckaseegee Road.

“We are able to keep some of the historical and sentimental value of the building in the community where it was built. This is a history JCSU is working to preserve through this project and one that lives on through the members of the Mount Carmel Baptist Church congregation,” Allison said.

This story was originally published October 24, 2023 at 12:52 PM.