Who sells a church?
But more importantly, who buys a church?
That’s what real estate agent Pat Blanko is asking herself as she takes on the challenge of selling the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church and its accompanying pastoral home on Hubbell Avenue.
The uncommon scenario is a result of changes in Valley demographics and a shift in the way many congregations gather today.
As church membership slowly declined to only about a dozen families, the Holy Trinity congregation decided to merge with St. Barbara Church in Orange, which has a bigger facility and more programs such as Greek school and youth groups. The Ansonia church, built in 1919, used to be the central meeting place for members of the Valley’s Greek community, who owned stores or worked in the factories. But now the few church members drive in from Stratford, Orange and New Haven; And they often also belong to St. Barbara’s Church.
“It’s a sad situation,” said life-long church member Jerry Vartelas, whose father helped build the church. “It’s a sign of the times.”
Father Joel McEachen said the congregation has been talking about merging with St. Barbara’s since the late 1960s, when St. Barbara Church decided to move to Orange from New Haven.
“Six months ago, I think they realized they were holding off the inevitable,” McEachen said. The last service in the Hubbell Street church will be in July.
Now as the church community is at a crossroads, Blanko takes on the challenge of selling an untraditional building in a rough housing market. In the Greek Orthodox tradition, the congregation owns the church building, and therefor has the responsibility of selling it.
The half-acre property has the 90-year-old church, which Blanko described as “gingerbread cute,” and a three-bedroom home built in the 1960s. The congregation listed the two buildings at $375,000.
Click here to visit the property listing on Blanko’s Web site.
The handful of people who viewed the property were interested in keeping it a church. But Blanko said getting a business loan in this climate was difficult.
McEachen and Blanko said the building has potential to serve as another church or for another purpose, like a community center or a daycare. Blanko said she could also see the church building being re-used as a private home, while the adjacent home could become a rental property.
“It’s a great deal,” Blanko said.
While Blanko pushes creative uses for the property, the church members are slowly coming to grips with the move.
It’s bittersweet.
They can recall spending much of their free time in the basement of Holy Trinity, or on the lawn that separates the church from the pastoral home. That’s where countless picnics and celebrations were held. The basement housed Greek school, potluck meals and a regular raffle. It’s now where several pictures of those events are displayed. Those pictures and keepsakes will eventually find their way into Vartelas’ 3‑inch binder, where he’s collecting tid bits from the church’s history to eventually compile into a book.
