Cultures Clash Over a Church : Armenians Cite Property Rights in Effort to Change Historic Landmark

St. Mary’s Armenian Apostolic Church is one of this city’s most recognizable buildings. Built in 1926 for the First Church of Christ, Scientist, its stark white exterior, sharp angles and columned entrance project a stately image that helped put it on a list of local historic landmarks.

But inside that classic American exterior worships one of the largest Armenian congregations in Southern California. And the group’s long-held wish to erect an Eastern-style dome, among other changes, has given rise to a classic culture clash with preservationists.

“Every Armenian church has a dome on top of it, but we can’t have one because of city regulations,” said Vahik Satoorian, the church’s treasurer.

“The city is afraid we want to change the building and it won’t be considered historic any more. But this is our church. We love this building. We just want our rights, like any other property owner.”

Church leaders have asked that their building at 500 S. Central Ave. be the first ever removed from a list of 34 protected sites in the city’s General Plan, a request that was recently discussed in the first of several expected hearings.

If approved, the church’s new lack of special status would eliminate the need for construction work to be approved by the city’s Historic Preservation Commission--a layer of red tape that delayed past efforts to reinforce the church against earthquakes, install stained-glass windows and repaint the exterior.

For now, church officials say, the city’s preservation law is thwarting plans to move the altar, build a choir loft, enlarge the sanctuary and possibly even build a parking garage. Long-range plans to add a traditional dome to the church--which for now remain unfunded--seem all but impossible because of the city’s strict stand on smaller changes, leaders of St. Mary’s say.

Members of the Glendale Historical Society are opposing the church’s request to take the building off historic rolls, saying that doing so would invite all buildings from Glendale’s early days to be altered or even razed. The society is dedicated to preserving structures designed by Alfred Priest and other architects important in the city’s history.

City planning officials are also wary of the move because they hope the church will one day be placed on a state or national register of historic sites. At a hearing this month, the city’s Environmental and Planning Board ordered the church to prepare an environmental impact report on its plans, a costly and time-consuming step.

“We just want the city to stand by its historic-preservation policy,” said Andrea Humberger, a historical society member who spoke at the hearing. “There is a common good that comes from retaining these buildings. It gives us a sense of our past.”

Humberger also said church officials are incorrect in asserting that historic-preservation laws are scuttling their plans for the building. “All they have to do is submit their plans and go through the process,” she said.

St. Mary’s is by no means the first historic building to have construction plans questioned by local officials--nor the first religious group to believe its traditions are being unfairly opposed.

The Los Angeles Conservancy, a nonprofit preservation group, is trying to persuade the Roman Catholic archdiocese to rebuild, rather than demolish St. Vibiana’s Cathedral in Downtown Los Angeles. A designated “cultural heritage landmark,” the church suffered major damage during the Northridge earthquake.

In 1990, the Islamic Center of Northridge received the Los Angeles City Council’s approval to build the first mosque in the San Fernando Valley--but only after 44 conditions were imposed, including a requirement that the mosque have Spanish-tile roofing so it would blend into the surrounding neighborhood. Like the Armenian church, the Islamic Center also wanted to build a dome but was barred from doing so.

St. Mary’s officials and their lawyers contend that in creating such restrictions, the Glendale’s historic-preservation ordinance violates church members’ First Amendment right to practice their religion freely.

“The way it is right now, the city is telling us, ‘Don’t touch that window, don’t touch that brick.’ They’re dictating to us where and how we practice our religion, and we don’t think that’s right in a country like America,” Satoorian said.

Glendale officials cited the building’s neoclassical style when they first listed it as historic in 1977. The building was designed by the architectural firm of Meyer & Holler, which also designed the Egyptian and Chinese theaters in Hollywood. Today, it houses one of four Armenian congregations in Glendale.

Six months after the building was purchased by St. Mary’s in 1985, the city enacted the historic-preservation ordinance now at the center of the dispute.

Even within Glendale, the congregation is not alone in its qualms about having the special label. A 1993 city inventory of properties that might be considered eligible for state historic designation was loudly opposed by many building owners who ultimately persuaded the City Council to abandon plans to create several historic districts. Opponents successfully argued that a historic designation would diminish their properties’ resale value.

“Once your property is declared a historic landmark you can’t make any changes without going through an additional process, and the standards are more strict,” said Martha Feutz, who fought the designation for her 1908 Craftsman-style house, which is just a block from the Armenian church.

By most accounts, Glendale’s estimated 40,000 Armenians and Armenian Americans--several thousand of whom are members of St. Mary’s--have assimilated well into the community, which has grown in the past 15 years from a predominantly Anglo suburb to a diverse city of 180,000. There have been occasional signs of ethnic tension, such as an incident in early 1994 in which anti-Armenian slogans were scrawled outside an Armenian Scouting organization’s headquarters.

By and large, Satoorian said, he does not believe those fighting the church’s plans are anti-Armenian. But he said opponents should better understand the church’s history, which is centuries older than the building they are trying to safeguard.

“The historical society keeps on referring to the building as the First Church of Christ, Scientist, but this is now an Armenian church,” Satoorian said.

“We are just trying to carry on a tradition that is thousands of years old.”