New-York tribune., 1901-03-24
kind may think. and mankind is never the worse
for what he says.
MAKING CHURCH BUILDINGS PRODUCTIVE.

VI Il
"Cassiers Magazine notes with approval
recent suggestion that churches be provided
with elevators. There appears TO be no good
reason" it says, why an elevator should not
.be used in church, to increase the value OF a
gallery, for example. which usually is neg
Elected and unpopular part; or 10 be the means
"of furnishing additional room facilities with
.out the expense of more ground space ana
separate structures and that too, without I'M
pairing the churchly character OF the archltect-
lure. There would seem to be In this some
'thing worth thinking about by architects ana
"church communities" 1t may be doubted,
however, whether it would be worth While 10
install an elevator service in churches merely
to induce people to occupy the galleries. Few
of the modern churches have galleries, ana
those that have find little difficulty in getting
people to occupy them if the membership OF
the church is too large to be accommodated In
the main auditorium. On the other hand. there
are some churches with galleries whose congre-
cations never completely fill the auditorium be-
low, and it would be obviously inexpedient for
such churches to 90 to the expense of installing
an elevator service.
But there is another aspect of the case that
might be worth considering ~ city churches.
In view of the great and increasing value of
land in all the larger cities, would not some
modification of the present traditional type of
church building be wise? The city church Of
the better class represents a large sum Of
money, hundreds Of thousands of dollars in
many cases, and in some instances it mounts
close up to million. Yet the plant. to use
commercial term is absolutely unused except
for four or five hours week. II Will be SAID,
and doubtless with truth, that these few hours
of sSe for the two Sunday services and week
ly prayer meeting are of tremendous lmpor-
tance TO a large number Of people. But If sGme
way could be devised by which the great invest
ment of the congrega ton in building and land
could he made productive all the time the
spiritual benefit resulting from these services
would be in no respect diminished. Let us
suppose. for instance. that instead of Gothic
structure which, however lofty or expensive II
may be. only furnishes seats for q few LUn-
dred people two or three times a week, tail
building should be erected, the first floor serv
ing the church auditorium and the other
floors being high class apartments. Several dis
tinct advantages 10 the church would result
from such an arrangement. Its property would
be productive all the time, and the parish would
derive an income from II that would go far
toward maintaining it, Naturally in such Il
case it would expect 10 pay taxes on It's piop-
~
is now so often directed against churches that
they pay taxes on property whose value is
out Of all proportion to the use derived from it.
That such an investment would prove profit
able we'll as feasible admits of little doubt.
The apartments would. of course. he in all re-
SpectS unObjeCtiOnabe, and would therefore be
sought by the most desirable class of tenants.
Not only would the church for This reason be
able 10 command a good rent, hut IL would
suffer less from irresponsible nOnpayiaG ten
ants. who do so much To diminish the Profits
of the average apartment house. Moreover
should the church desire. it might rent its
apartments only TO tenants who would take
pews in the church. This would add to the
income Of the church and would bring a num-
ber of the parishioners so close To the church
that they would have no excuse TO stay away
from the services
Two objections Ia such scheme might no
made. The first is that il is undignihed and i'm
proper for parish 10 go into the business Of
building and renting apartments. The reply to
that is that Trinity parish is one of the largest
landlords in the city, and no one seriously ques-
tions It's right to he so. The second objection
would be that the present type OF church build
ing calls forth the religious instinct in 4 way
that no auditorium in n building devoted 10
otner purposes possibly could. j mere Is un-
doubtedly much force in this objection; hut
after all IL is only question of habit and as
Soration- The early Christians in Rome wor-
shipped in the Catacombs and mean little halls.
without any of the accessories that have now
come to he regarded as an integral part of wor-
ship. Yet the religious fervor of those early
Christians. many OF whom became martyrs, will
hardly he questioned. II is conceivable that the
CatacOmb type of auditorium might have CON
tinued in use until to-day had not the church
adopted more costly type of building when it
became rich and worldly. And in that case
neither the basilica nor the Gothic fame would
have had any religious suggestions for modern
Christians. After the first shock city conSre-
cations to-day would find themselves able 10
worship in such an auditorium as we have
suggested. And the greater productiveness of
their property would do much to Tighten the
financial problem. which is all the time bccom-
ing heavier.