The Atlanta Constitution from Atlanta, Georgia • 53

....50 Tabernacle Says 'Historic' Status Will Ensure Its Demise does not understand the terms of the ordinance, and she intends to invite representatives of the city's lending institutions to a The Downtown Church Needs a $1 Million Loan, Which Lenders Apparently Won't Grant If City Council Approves Historic Building Status: member Harry Barber, told the board as he left the meeting with about 25 fellow members. The zoning board recommendation goes to the Zoning Committee of City Council on Dec. 1. Historic Status Urged For 3 More Buildings Three more buildings have been recommended for historic building status by the Zoning Review Board. The "Castle" at 87 15th St.

N.E., Hirsch Hall at 55 Coca-Cola Place S.E., and the Steiner Clinic at 62 Butler St S.E. received ZRB approval without opposition last week. The rulings will go to the Zoning Committee of City Council on Dec. 1. The zoning board deferred action for 120 days on landmark building status for the old Atlanta Union Mission building at 54 Ellis St N.E.

as much as it can while keeping down operating costs. It has been without a pastor for three years, and a minister who is now interested won't accept the call if the loan plan doesn't materialize, Mr. Barrett said. If the church obtains the loan, and the revival effort fails, it could not, under historic status, sell the property and would be stuck with the debt, he said. But Ms.

Huebner replied that the ordinance has provisions for alteration of buildings and selling of property. It requires that before a building is demolished, a foundation permit for a structure to replace it must be presented to the design commission. Attorney Frank Lightmas, representing the church, insisted that the neoclassical red-brick building doesn't meet the historic, cultural or architectural standards of the ordinance, while the commission says it meets all the qualifications as determined by architectural, preservation and real estate professionals. "We'll be praying for you," church By Actor Cordell SUiffWriter Designating the Baptist Tabernacle as a historic property under the city's preservation ordinance will "drive the final nail in the coffin" of the 78-year-old church at 162 Luckie Street, members of the dwindling congregation contend. Its demise would leave no Southern Baptist house of worship in downtown Atlanta, they say.

In its heydey in the 1950s, the church had nearly 3,000 members and often was filled to the rafters. Sunday worship now draws about 160 longtime members, most of whom are elderly. The Baptist Tabernacle needs to borrow $1 million for a. five-year survival strategy, and church leaders say that lenders refuse to the loan if City Council approves historic status, which the city's Zoning Review Board unanimously recommended Thursday. However, Urban Design Commission Director Karen Huebner says the church meeting in January to further explain the details.

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