PETERSBURG, Va. — In 1957, 30 years after its founding, Elm Street Baptist Church in Petersburg expressed its confidence in the future by building a new 400-seat sanctuary. The following year, as if to justify the church’s attitude, Petersburg was named an “All American City” for its quality of life. In 1967, the church added a 27,000-square-foot educational building to meet the needs of the church which drew members from the surrounding neighborhoods and Dinwiddie County.
But even then things were beginning to change for Petersburg and Elm Street. Beneath the surface, racial tensions were simmering and with the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968, they boiled over. Even so, Petersburg was the first city in the nation to declare King’s birthday a holiday.
Elm Street Baptist Church has given its facilities to St. Paul's Baptist Church in Richmond.
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The advent of busing in the early 1970s accelerated white flight to the surrounding counties. Even though some members continued to drive back on Sundays, Elm Street, like other white churches, experienced a decline in membership and attendance. As the neighborhood transitioned from all white to predominantly African-American, the new residents preferred black churches in which to worship.
Through the years, the church made several concerted attempts to reach its African-American neighbors. Jeanette Miller, whose parents began attending while she was a child, still lives within a mile of the church. She recalls, “Lois Carlberg went door to door and talked with every family and invited them. She had a good number of young black teens coming because she spent a lot of time with them.”
Miller recalls that several African-Americans attended through the years, but never more than two or three at a time were actual members. Miller does not recall any resistance to blacks joining the church.
Petersburg and its churches were also affected by the loss of jobs as industries relocated and businesses closed. Attendance at Elm Street dropped sharply again following the stabbing death of a deacon, 82-year-old Claiborne Holloway, on Sunday morning, Sept. 24, 2000, as he walked to church from his home on nearby Spring Street.
Nine years later, almost to the day, Elm Street Baptist Church held its last service. On Sept. 28, 2009, the church presented the door keys to Lance Watson, pastor of St. Paul’s Baptist Church, an African-American congregation with a primary campus on Creighton Road in Richmond. In this, Elm Street followed the example of Weatherford Memorial Baptist Church in Richmond, which had given its facilities to St. Paul’s four year earlier. According to Elm Street deacon Donald Kennedy, the facilities are valued at $2.5 million.
“Of those of us who were left, a few didn’t want to see us close,” offered Miller. “But the hand-writing was on the wall. The congregation was made up of people in their 70s, 80s and 90s and maybe a couple in their 60s.”Attendance had dwindled to 15 to 20.
“You can hold on as long as you can,” Miller continued, “but finally you get to the point you just don’t have the people to do the work. If we had been successful in reaching the black children — I don’t know, things might have been different.”
If St. Paul’s has anything to say about it, hundreds of black children will be reached through St. Paul’s Elm Street campus. The sanctuary is currently being renovated to accommodate the St. Paul’s worship style, using $30,000 provided by Elm Street church for that purpose. A grand re-opening of the Elm Street campus, initially set for Easter, has yet to be rescheduled.
“The things they say they are going to do are exactly the things the community needs. I think they will reach them,” commented Barbara Skinner, whose husband, Harvey, served as interim pastor at Elm Street for several years.
At Skinner’s suggestion, Elm Street established a legacy fund of $200,000 invested with the Virginia Baptist Foundation. Each year, 10 percent of the interest earned will be added to the fund. Of the remaining 90 percent, half will be given to Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond and half will go to the Virginia Baptist Mission Board.
A second Petersburg Baptist church, Walnut Hill, also closed its doors recently. The VBMB has accepted custodianship of the facilities, with approval of its board to spend up to $100,000 to keep the facilities maintained. A church in Northern Virginia is considering the Walnut Hill facilities as a second site.
Jim White is editor of the Religious Herald.