Church’s Prayers May Be Answered Soon With Permit to Build Sanctuary

‘Mmm-mm! If you think the devil’s fought us up to now--he’s going to have a seizure!’--Pastor Fred K.C. Price

“Glory! that’s exciting,” said Pastor Fred K.C. Price, savoring the news that his Crenshaw Christian Center may soon break ground for a 10,000-seat sanctuary at its Vermont Avenue complex in South Los Angeles.

For several years, planning had been under way for a new church to house the congregation of more than 13,000, one of the largest and most affluent black churches in the country. Now, with a crowd of 1,400 filling every seat at the first of three Sunday services, Price was bringing them up to date.

“How sweet it is,” Price declared as the worshipers jumped to their feet, raised their hands to Heaven and cheered and the organ music swelled to a triumphant climax.

The new sanctuary, housed in a geodesic dome, would be in place next year, the preacher said. “Mmm-mm!If you think the devil’s fought us up to now--he’s going to have a seizure!”

When the new building is dedicated, Price plans to preach his gospel of “ever-increasing faith” to 20,000 people every Sunday, in addition to the millions who watch broadcast services through a network of 20 stations, three satellite networks, four foreign stations and additional cable outlets.

Addressing his congregation at a recent service, Price said jokingly that he could already see the dome poking above the nearby treetops, 65 feet high and big enough to host a track meet.

The project had been faced with financial hurdles. In addition, the biggest obstacle was the 1978 designation of an old ranch house on the church compound, the former campus of Pepperdine University, as a historic-cultural monument.

The house was built in 1912, in a style that combined the arches and red tile roofing of old Southern California with rich wood paneling, crystal chandeliers, stained-glass windows and a basement bowling alley. It was designed by Octavius Morgan, founding president of the Southern California chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

Joseph P. Connolly, the first owner, maintained a baronial life style on the proceeds of selling his mother’s 160-acre homestead, which stretched as far as Manhattan Beach. On what is now Normandie Avenue he kept a lake stocked with fish and ducks and entertained weekend guests in the 18-room house, which was then eight miles from the edge of the city.

George Pepperdine, the founder of Western Auto Supply, bought the 35-acre estate that was left in 1937 and donated it for the establishment of a Christian college. The school, now known as Pepperdine University, sold the site to the Crenshaw Christian Center in 1981, and the house, once home of the chancellors of Pepperdine, was boarded up.

Now the financing arrangements have been almost completed, Price said, and the city’s Cultural Heritage Commission has abandoned its objections to the demolition of the structure, which will make way for parking for the new sanctuary.

An adjacent carriage house and the surrounding garden, site of innumerable student weddings, will also go. By January, a geodesic dome should be in place that will vie with St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York as one of the largest church structures in the United States. The whole project will cost about $8 million.

Although the Cultural Heritage Commission and preservation groups worked for years to save the Connolly house, few now can see an alternative to demolition.

“We held it up for a long time, hoping that someone would buy it for a dollar, because of its historical significance . . . but they couldn’t find anyone,” said Velma Taylor, vice president of the commission. “So after our efforts were found to be in vain, our commission doesn’t have any alternative but to release our hold.

“We’re not about destruction; we’re about preserving,” she said. “But sometimes it’s useless.”

Potential Takers

Since the church offered in 1982 to give the building away if somebody would remove it, about 400 potential takers expressed interest. One was selected, but the cost of breaking the house down into five separate sections and moving it to the San Fernando Valley proved to be prohibitive. Other qualified buyers also gave up.

“The tab on the movement of this particular building (estimated at $600,000 including the cost of a new site) was so great that everybody backed out,” said Dr. Amarjit S. Marwah, president of the Cultural Heritage Commission.

According to Ernest M. Tavernier, attorney for the church, one or two queries a month are still coming in. “If they could show us they could remove the building prior to the time we demolish it, we’d be glad to do it,” he said. “We’re just sitting and waiting.” Otherwise, a demolition permit may be issued by July.

One of those saddened by news of the impending demise of the Connolly house--known officially as the President’s House even though the presidents of the university did not live there--was Helen M. Young, wife of M. Norvel Young, chancellor emeritus of Pepperdine University.

Family Raised There

Now living at the university’s Malibu campus, Young recalled that the couple lived in the house for 13 years and raised their four children there. The long, gabled attic was an ideal setting for Halloween parties.

“We loved living there in that wonderful old house,” she said. “It was very spacious and stately. There were Philippine mahogany panelings in the dining room and beautiful cut-glass chandeliers. . . . I’d love to take it somewhere and save it, but it’s not practical from a financial point of view.”

Before the house is demolished, Pepperdine will be taking its pick of the fittings for display in Malibu. The Los Angeles Conservancy, a preservationist group, has asked for the ornate mantelpiece.

“A lot of the uniqueness will be saved and used in other buildings,” said Connie Meadows, an aide to Councilman Robert Farrell, whose district includes the compound between Vermont Avenue and Normandie Avenue and 78th Street and 79th Street.

Meadows said the buildings were listed as a historic-cultural monument because the city’s Department of Recreation and Parks hoped to raise funds to restore them and expected the designation to help that effort. That fell through, however, and plans for low- and moderate-income housing also failed, and the campus was sold in 1981 to Price’s church.

Ready to Expand

“They have been holding their services in another building but they are ready to expand,” she said. “They can’t do any better than try to give it away. The church needs to be there and serve the people in that district.”

The cars of worshipers who park along Vermont Avenue have been the source of neighbors’ complaints for years, she said. When the new structure is built, additional parking spaces required by a city building code are expected to relieve that problem.

Although he has been affiliated in the past with Baptist, African Methodist Episcopal and other major denominations, Price’s Crenshaw Christian Center is nondenominational. Its credo resembles that of Pentecostalist churches.

Services begin with a half-sung, half-preached warm-up session directed by an assistant pastor accompanied by a choir and a combo made up of trumpet, trombone, guitar and piano.

Members of the audience occasionally stand and exhort their fellows.

“You continue to stumble and grumble in the wilderness,” a woman in a pink flowered dress exhorted the congregation last week. “Why do you listen to the enemy?”

Appeal for Funds

Then Price appeared, limiting his appeal for funds to a brief mention that the television broadcast was paid for by the contributions of TV viewers. He devoted much of his sermon to an exposition on Christian family ethics, convulsing his audience with a comic warning that he would touch on “that horrible, triple-X word: sex. Aaargh.”

Healing sessions are held at Sunday night services and after other church meetings, where Price stresses that there can be no cure without faith.

“As the Lord directs,” a church publication says, “we have the vocal gifts of the Spirit in operation--prophecy and divers kinds of tongues with the companion gift of interpretation of tongues. We’ve seen many miracles and have had people healed while just sitting in the audience.”