Hello friends of Holy Cross,

I want to give you an update on the status of the house located at 3617 Texas, just outside the East Red Doors of the church. We’ve called it the Bridge House lately, though I sometimes muse that we might call it The House of 100 Names.  More on that below.

One of my joys and goals as pastor at Holy Cross has been to steward our buildings well.  We have a fair amount of real estate: Church, School, Intersect, Parsonage, and the House at 3617 Texas. I like to see our spaces become living places. I value seeing them filled with life consistently and with purpose throughout the week. 

The House is currently at a point of transition. During our visioning process, the congregation began dreaming about how we might use it.  We decided to delay those conversations until our next staff person was with us. Now that Pastor Paul is here, we want to continue that conversation.

We would like to have a Town Hall Meeting during our Second Sunday Lunch on November 12, to begin/continue brainstorming how we want to use that space in the future.  We won’t make any decisions.  I anticipate that we won’t bring the conversation to a close, but will pick it up again in the new year. Bring your ideas! I’ve heard many great ideas to use and even transform the space inside and out!

In the meantime, we are using the space in short-term capacities. Nothing we do now will take future ideas off the table. Instead, how we are using it now is giving us a little insight into what works in the space and what doesn’t.  Here are the ways we are using the House short-term: ESL and Catechism classes for our friends from Haiti, Family Discipleship meetings, after-church fellowship, Christian artwork on the walls (the artist will come talk about his work at an upcoming event).  We plan to put some cozier furniture inside that will provide better hospitality for these uses.

Now, some of you may be interested in the history of the building.  If not, skip this paragraph.  I’ll share what I have come to understand. The house was one of many in a row along Texas avenue built for professor housing when Concordia Seminary was here.  I wonder if it was built about the same time that the [current] Intersect building was added onto the rest of the campus (1908).  Regardless, after the seminary moved to Clayton in 1926, the other professor homes were taken down and this one remained.  It then became a private residence until the early 1990s.  When the owner died, Holy Cross acquired it for a modest amount. Since then, the house has been used by different groups and purposes, giving it many names.  It has been called: Professor’s House, Private House, The Daycare House, Family Shield Ministries House, The Gallery House, The Sunday School House, Lutheran Development Group House, ARJ Food Pantry House.  You will still hear people refer to it by any and all of these names, including, lately, The Bridge House.  That is why I simply call it The House of a Hundred Names.

Thanks for reading. I simply want to share where we’ve been, where we are, and where we are going with plans for a simple but cozy place we have been given to steward.  Please join us on November 12 to brainstorm together. And, in the meantime, feel free to walk through the House and dream.

Peace,

Pastor Bob