United We Stand
What's better then actually doing my college homework that is due in 7 hours and worth 1/2 an exam grade? Not doing it and writing a blog post instead of course. Just off interstate 75 in the glass city, the decaying spire of the former Braden United Methodist Church pierces the sky above.
This Colonial Revival style church originally housed the Washington Congregational Church. The building was constructed in 1923 at a cost of around $675,806 in today's money. It housed an 800 seat nave, rooms for Sunday school, several checkrooms, offices, and even a gymnasium with locker rooms and baths.
The origins of the Washington Congregational Church can be traced back to 1866 when the First Congregational of Toledo donated $2,650 ($1,276,828 today) to the Young Mission Church to found a Washington Street Chapel.
The Washington Street Congregational Church would not be formally organized until 1873, at the time of its founding the church had only 38 members. When the church made the move to this structure they dropped "Street" from the name since it wouldn't make a lot of sense for the Washington Street Congregational Church to not bee on Washington Street.
Braden United Methodist Church goes back to around 1908 when the Canton Street Mission was founded. The church's first pastor was the Methodist pastor Rev. George Chinn from Columbus. The church would simply meet in public places or at households until 1920 when congregation voted to move to City Park and Belmont. (Yes Toledo actually named a road City Park).
In 1924 the Canton Street Mission was renamed in honor of Rev. John Braden who at the time was the president of Walden University in Nashville. As the congregation grew in size over the years they begun to seek out a new building, conveniently at this time, the Washington Congregational Church had a big old church building they were selling.
Braden United would continue to use the building until 2009 when the congregation purchased the former Asbury United Methodist Church at 4725 Dorr Street, where they still operate today. Ever since then "Old Braden" as the congregation members call it, has sat quietly decaying.
For 15 years of abandonment this building has seen zero vandalism. The building has always been kept locked up tight and the neighbors keep a watchful eye on it. During our explore we even found fire extinguishers that some idiots hadn't tried to huff yet.
Me and my friend who is in many of my Toledo posts visited this place yesterday during my Toledo spree. Someone had kindly dealt with the whole "locked" thing the night prior for us, allowing us easy entry through a side door. A homeless man sleeping outside eyed us up and down as we walked past him cameras in hand.
Inside it seemed that the building was trying to kill us.... or maybe our own stupidity was. While walking on a balcony in the nave my friend fell through a step causing him to loudly hit the floor. Twenty minutes later when we were on our way out we had to climb across pews stored in the auditorium, while climbing over I accidentally stepped onto a pew that was missing its left leg, causing me and the pew to go crashing to the floor giving me a nasty bruise in the process.
In 2013 the property was purchased by Richards Temple of Deliverance who proceeded to do absolutely nothing with the property until September of 2023 when the land was forfeited to the City of Toledo, what a crappy birthday celebration.
As of writing this there are currently no plans for the property. One can only hope that somebody steps up before its too late. Anyways like usual hope you enjoyed this post.
Mutagen Out!
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