Norwich (Conn.) Savings Society Building.
From Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com.
We’ve seen plenty of stories about closed churches being turned into offices, condos, rental apartments and stores. But here’s a nice switch: The grand former Norwich (Conn.) Savings Society Building in that old mill town is being turned into a new Protestant church, the Castle Church, to open sometime in 2019.
The church describes itself thus:
“We love Norwich. Our passion is to work for the peace and prosperity of the city, aligning ourselves with God’s strategy for urban areas around the world. We regularly serve our neighbors in the Rose City. Jesus served among people – not above them. We look forward to doing the same!’’
Amazon and other parts of the Internet epidemic are killing many businesses in old (and even fairly new) buildings. Some of the old ones, especially former banks, even look a bit like churches and could be elegantly transformed to that use. But I don’t imagine that skeptical New England will be a very fertile region for this. Many of these projects will more likely than not involve the evangelical and/or fundamentalist wing of Protestantism.
