The city of Dayton has granted a wrecking permit for the school building. A daycare behind the school already has been razed. A letter to parishioners states the demolition was taking place to expand a parking lot next to the church, which has limited parking.
Angela Hughes, a parishioner whose children formerly attended St. Anthony’s school, said the parish was told it would only be a “couple of weeks” before the building was demolished.
“We’re to the point where we’ve tried everything we can,” she said.
Vera Tangeman, another parishioner who has attended the church for decades and watched her own kids and grandkids attend St. Anthony’s, said some church members asked to be able to fundraise to fix the building, but were turned down.
“In my business, I would want to make sure I had investigated every possible opportunity before I made a decision to close it down,” she said.
Hughes and Tangeman reached out to Preservation Dayton, a local group that works to save old buildings with historical ties to the area. Monica Snow, vice president of Preservation Dayton, said she had spoken with some parishioners who want to try to sell the building and use it as something else, whether that’s a community center, home for seniors or apartments.
Mike Schafer, a spokesman for the archdiocese, said in meetings with parish leaders no formal discussion has come up about selling the building or repurposing it for use by an external organization because that would not benefit the Catholic presence in the neighborhood. He said all the decisions have been made with the consensus of the Parish Council and Finance Commission.
Schafer said when the church originally was built, most of the people attending church lived nearby and walked to church. Now more people drive to the building and there’s a greater need for parking.
“If the building was either sold to another organization or managed by an external organization, it would impact St. Anthony’s ability to accommodate larger gatherings of the parish community,” Schafer said. “Moreover, there might be times when the celebration of the parish might conflict with the activities of the external organization, and this would not be good for either the parish or that organization.”
The archdiocese did not disclose how much it will cost to demolish the building but said it would be significantly less than repairing it and bringing it up to code.
Around 156 children in grades kindergarten through eighth grade attended St. Anthony’s last fall before the announcement it was going to close at the end of the school year. Nearby East Dayton Catholic schools like Holy Angels and Immaculate Conception, and St. Helen in Riverside were asked to consider those students for priority enrollment.
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