Patience has been a virtue for the members of Wallace Presbyterian Church. After more than six years without a home, patience has finally paid off.
A ribbon cutting and brass fanfare heralded the congregation’s arrival to a new address at 3725 Metzerott Road the last weekend of June. Their white church with multi-sided gray roofing that folds together like a paper crane now towers at the northwest end of campus. The story behind the building is riddled with construction woes.
After the church sold its Hyattsville building in January 2003, the congregation anticipated spending only a few years at nearby Northwestern High School. What they didn’t expect was a contractor swap, a malfunctioning propane furnace that filled the new building with soot and soil problems inherited from the former nursery where they broke ground.
“We thought we would be done more than a year ago,” said Martin Rabenhorst, an elder at the church and professor of environmental science and technology at the university who chaired the design and construction team. “But we got set back, and it cost us a lot extra.”
In the meantime, the auditorium at Northwestern served as a sub-par substitute sanctuary. The Rev. Scott Bridges, the church’s pastor, described frigid temperatures in the summer months resulting from an overly efficient air conditioner, while other members spoke of poor acoustics and the empty feeling of a big, cold room. Women greeted churchgoers in the lobby handing out blankets and shawls, Bridges recalled.
“Presbyterians have been called ‘the frozen chosen’ before, but it wasn’t meant to be like that,” said Bridges, who joined the congregation in August. “Some of my first duties were to stand in the pulpit and say, ‘Hi, I know you don’t know me at all, but I’ve got some really bad news for you, and it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better.'”
The new building, designed by Andre Houston of Houston and Heyne Architects, came in at a $6.5 million price-tag, but maintains traditions from the congregation that has moved twice its 99-year-old history. A cornerstone from the church’s original Washington building, built in 1914, rests in the narthex.
The architecture of the church itself is defined by its originality. Bright white and looming, the steeple tops a seven-sided, circular sanctuary that creates a unique worship-in-the-round experience. Windows naturally light the space and leave all members in clear view of one another.
“Here you feel like you’re singing with a bunch of other people instead of singing by yourself with some other people in the distance,” said Jeff Walters, a longtime church member and university graduate student.
Sara Idler, assistant secretary at Wallace, also enjoys the intimacy that the round sanctuary facilitates.
“Both these past two weeks I’ve introduced myself to people who have been members of Wallace, and I hadn’t met them yet because at Northwestern we were so spread out, and here we are so together,” she said. “You can spot faces you’ve never seen, you can introduce yourself to people, you can get to know them better.”
Indeed, long after the service had ended Sunday morning on June 28, congregation members milled about the entrance to the church – talking, laughing and chasing their kids around a playground.
“You walk through the lobby … and there was just a rowdy party,” Bridges said of the lingering crowd after the service. “If people were living closer to us, the cops would probably get us for disturbing the peace.”
Bridges said the church moved partly because of church members felt marginalized in an increasingly urban area.
“Usually churches get old, and … kind of like old people, they get sedentary and grumpy,” he said. “This church’s body of people were very concerned to put themselves in a place where they could be more effective in having a ministry to … the campus, but also to the community.”
Another reason for the move is the church’s proximity to the university.
While the church already boasts a membership of about 450, Bridges said he’s counting on attracting more students.
“We’re being very intentional about reaching out,” he said. “We want to be a blessing to the campus and the community.”
The church grounds also hold the House of the Crossroads, which was built before construction on the main building was complete and has been in use for the past four years. It is used to host a study center, film showings, book readings, art shows, and English classes to cater to the community.
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