The Episcopal Church has bought a block in downtown Austin where it plans to build a facility to house its national archives and provide space for meetings, exhibits, research and other purposes.
The church purchased the block, now a parking lot bounded by Seventh, Eighth, Trinity and Neches streets, from Jimmy Nassour, an Austin real estate attorney. The purchase price was $9.5 million, said Mark Duffy, director of the Archives of the Episcopal Church.
The church, which borrowed against its endowment to buy the land, plans to launch a capital campaign next year to raise money to repay that loan and pay for the new facility. The cost of the project, which is in the “very preliminary” planning stages, will be almost $40 million, Duffy said.
Interesting to choose downtown real estate. Granted, it’s not the best part of downtown; the last I noticed, the Salvation Army was on the next block east and a lot of sleazy bars were just east of that on Red River.
The property is adjacent to St David’s Episcopal Church. Perhaps that has some to do with the location. There are plenty of empty buildings big enough for this project in Austin or nearby that could have been bought for much less I suspect. Maybe there will be an interactive display of appropriate related objects: The dodo, for example.
Think of it as a missionary outpost #1.
“Episcopal Church buys downtown Austin Texas Block for Denominational Mausoleum” might be more accurate. The spending shows the priorities — and the future.
St. David’s actually has stood as a “missionary outpost” for more than 150 years. I was a member there in the 70s, part of a influx that came in the wake of an act of faith made some 15 years prior. In the 60s, it was fashionable for downtown parishes to move away from the city core, but St. David’s decided God was calling them to stay and bear witness where they were. They raised funds and built a large church school building and parish hall, all connected to the old church. We held a kick off dinner for another building drive when I was there (maybe 1977 or 78?); members new to the parish since the last building project were asked to stand, and it was over half the people present.
I looked at the charts, and ASA is holding just over 800, which I think it down from when I was there, but still healthy. I know they have held at least two building programs since I was there, including repairs to the old church, from when the ceiling fell in.
http://www.stdave.org/
Just curious, but would the Austin presence of the Consortium of Endowed Episcopal Parishes have anything to do with this? Austin just seems to be an odd choice to house the archives of the national church.
Not terribly odd, really… seems like everyone else is moving to Austin!
Actually, Austin’s not a bad choice for an archive: The region is more or less immune from earthquakes, hurricanes, wildfires, floods, and blizzards. It has decent power- and water supplies, a high-tech infrastructure, and plenty of educated workers as potential employees. And it’s not a terribly expensive place to do business.
And has the best Bar-B-Que and Mexican food in the nation.