Historic Church Battles for Existence

It has survived vandals, prostitutes and changing demographics. And now that the First Southern Baptist Church of Hollywood is in the way of a proposed Metro Rail route, church members are trying to save it from the wrecking crew.

“We’re in the fight of our lives, and we don’t intend to go down easily,” the Rev. Gary Tibbs said of the effort to preserve the historic church, whose four buildings include one built six decades ago as Hollywood’s first synagogue.

Tibbs and his congregation are fighting a Southern California Rapid Transit District proposal that would replace the church with a huge portal, allowing future commuter trains to go beneath the Hollywood Freeway.

Although other property owners have their own reasons for opposing the plan, the minister believes his argument is one that RTD officials have yet to hear.

“We aren’t against progress, but we question whether it’s progress to take down a house of the Lord just for the sake of moving people around a little faster,” Tibbs said.

Fighting Since January

Parishioners launched their campaign to save the church in January after the RTD, facing opposition from recording and broadcast studios along Sunset Boulevard’s “Electronic Mile,” announced a new plan for sending Metro Rail through the heart of Hollywood.

The studios threatened to leave the city unless the RTD scrapped a previously preferred plan that called for an elevated route down Sunset from Vermont Avenue to Vine Street. They insisted that noise and vibrations from the trains would wreak havoc with their sound-sensitive equipment.

The proposal announced in January calls for a mix of elevated construction on the eastern end of Sunset and subway construction under the freeway and Hollywood Boulevard.

The latest proposal “may sound like a neat solution to some people until you take a look at the RTD’s map and see that we would no longer be on it,” Tibbs said of the church at 1528 Wilton Place.

The 225 parishioners have collected 1,000 signatures from people opposed to the route.

Their cause has gained support elsewhere. A 25-member citizens’ advisory panel to the Hollywood Redevelopment Plan has endorsed placing the entire Metro Rail system underground as a way to lessen disruptions to churches, businesses and residents.

And City Councilman Mike Woo, whose district includes Hollywood, has come out in favor of an underground system if new RTD cost estimates released recently prove to be accurate. The new estimates project that the portion of the route that includes Hollywood would cost $1.68 billion, regardless of whether it is all underground or a mix of tunnels and elevated tracks.

RTD officials estimate that there may be only a negligible difference between building the system entirely underground versus the mixed aerial and underground system now envisioned. However, others are doubtful. Two members of a key Los Angeles County Transportation Commission panel monitoring Metro Rail have called for independent confirmation of the new figures.

Still, Woo’s support came as good news to church members and other property owners who would be affected by the plan.

“It’s what we’ve been saying all along, and it’s what we’re working to convince the RTD to consider,” said Martin Navorian, co-owner of the Dunes Motel, 5625 Sunset Blvd.

‘Worked to Build Business’

“We’ve worked hard to build this business over the last 15 years, and we don’t want to lose it,” he said. “Of course, the RTD says they will make us whole. But in the hotel business, you establish yourself at a location and, if you have to go someplace else, there’s no guarantee it’ll work.”

That is an argument Tibbs often uses in making his pitch to save the church.

“Metro Rail would destroy us,” he said. “This is a poor neighborhood, and we’re a poor church. If this church disappeared, a lot of our people would be cut off.”

While not affiliated with the church, a federally financed Head Start program that uses the church’s facilities to serve about 30 neighborhood children also would be affected, he said.

By law, the RTD has the authority to buy property it needs, with a jury setting the price when negotiations fail. But officials say court proceedings have been relatively few. Of the property acquired along the 4.4-mile stretch from downtown to Alvarado Street for Metro Rail’s first phase, only about 15% of the negotiations ended up in court, said Jeff Lyon, the agency’s director of real estate.

No Interest in Selling

Tibbs said church officials “haven’t really thought much” about the potential value of the property “since we have no interest in selling at any price.”

“Right now, we’re pinning our hopes on getting our message out about the importance of our church, and doing what we can to push the RTD to consider” the entirely underground alternative, the minister said.

Founded in 1952 by 14 members who were mostly transplanted Southerners, the church has had its ups and downs.

The congregation grew to more than 800 members by the mid-1960s, before about half left to form a new church. By that time, the changing demographics of Hollywood also began to take a toll.

“I know when I started coming, a lot of our members were still from the South,” said Ruth Young, 80, a former Sunday school teacher who came to Hollywood from Tennessee 19 years ago.

‘Lot of Old Ones Just Died’

“Some moved back home, others moved out to the valleys, some of the young ones finished college and left, and a lot of the old ones like me just died,” she said.

Nowadays, the church mirrors the multi-ethnic character of its East Hollywood neighborhood. English is the native language of only about 50 of the parishioners and services are conducted in Spanish, Korean, Arabic and Armenian.

Before a police crackdown on prostitution and drug selling in the neighborhood, parishioners for several years contended with a different type of problem.

“For a while, the prostitutes virtually took over in this neighborhood,” Tibbs said. “They became so bold that they’d use the lawn out front, without regard for this being a house of worship. . . . And, of course, we’ve had our share of vandalism, but with each of these things, we’ve managed to overcome.”

However, in its attempt to ward off the threat posed by the RTD, not all of the congregation’s efforts have gone smoothly.

Historic Cultural Monument

Several members of the city’s Cultural Heritage Commission were said to be dismayed last month after Tibbs abruptly withdrew a request to have one of the church’s four buildings declared a historic cultural monument.

The building, which houses a Spanish-speaking Bible study group, was dedicated in 1922 as the first Jewish synagogue in Hollywood. It was the place of worship for many show business figures, including Edward G. Robinson, silent film star Vera Gordon and Benjamin Warner, whose sons founded Warner Bros. studios.

The commission recently declined to consider the matter, passing up the opportunity to recommend monument status.

“We would have liked to have seen it, especially since so many of the original architectural features are intact,” said Stephen Sass, president of the Southern California Jewish Historical Society, which supported the church’s original request.

“Unfortunately, we have no resources ourselves to do anything toward preserving it, other than offer moral support, which is what we tried to do.”

Tibbs said church elders originally asked for monument status thinking that it might help guarantee the church’s survival, but later found out there is no law that would prevent the building from being demolished even if it were declared a monument.

“Our thinking is that if it were a monument, it might cause more of a financial burden to maintain it and, right now, we’re trying to save our pennies in case we have to go to court,” Tibbs said. “One way or the other, we’re gonna fight this thing.”