Calvary United Methodist Church in West Philadelphia recently received historic protections despite the protestations of the building’s owner, write Zoe Greenberg and Jake Blumgart for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Historic designation restricts an owner from demolishing or significantly altering a building’s exterior. Church leadership opposed the nomination, citing concerns that increased regulation would impose additional financial burdens on maintaining the aging structure.

The nomination process was prompted in part by a May 2023 incident at a neighboring church, which inadvertently sold rare Tiffany stained-glass windows and substituted them with plywood.

Soon afterwards, Calvary assessed the value of its own set of Tiffany windows.

“We got wind that Calvary was interested in selling their windows,” said Amy Lambert, president of the University City Historical Society. “We just wanted to … make sure that Cedar Park didn’t lose two churches with incredible architecture and Tiffany windows.”

The University City Historical Society nominated the church for historic designation in July 2023.

Tim Emmett-Rardin, the half-time pastor of Calvary, clarified that the church was only gathering information and had no plans to sell its windows or the building. He, along with his congregation and the building’s owner, Eastern Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church, have opposed the nomination.

Read more about Calvary United Methodist Church in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

_____