At Light and Cross streets, the evangelical minister stops and stares at one of Federal Hill's most storied businesses.
"The Lord is about to do something big in South Baltimore," proclaims the Rev. Steve Wolverton, 37, in a voice loud enough to be heard across the street.
"We need a safe haven for Christian kids, an incubator where young people can grow."
Wolverton's push for such a place could mark the beginning of a striking transformation in one of southern Baltimore's busiest intersections.
The courtship of LifeChangers Ministries and Herb Rosenberg -- not complete -- is an upbeat if unusual tale involving a big, born-again Southerner, a novelty-obsessed native New Yorker, the Air Force and Elvis Presley.
By fall, Wolverton hopes to open an institution new to the southern Baltimore peninsula: a private, evangelical Christian high school.
If Wolverton and Rosenberg seal the deal, the school would occupy Herb's Bargain Center, the one-of-a-kind kitsch store at 1038 Light St.
The timing for a sale of Herb's is ripe. Rosenberg, 71 and in faltering health, wants to retire.
Word of mouth on the new school is strong: Students and parents hope the LifeChangers School could be -- at $2,700 a year -- an affordable alternative to troubled Southern High School.
Wolverton and Rosenberg say the school also would stand as a strong contrast to a recent wave of conversions in the area, which has seen banks, theaters and warehouses transformed -- almost without exception -- into bars.
"We'd like people on their way to drinking establishments to stop and see this place," says Ray Hoffman, a friend of Wolverton's who is active in the school effort.
"This whole area is going to change in 10 or 15 years. And we don't want Christians to feel like fish out of water."
Wolverton felt a little out of his element when he first bought and rehabilitated a Federal Hill home in 1993. He grew up in Agricola, Miss., 300 miles south of Elvis' hometown of Tupelo.
At age 14, he says, he was a wild, "little Tasmanian devil." Then he got saved. He carried a Bible to high school. By 18, the broad-shouldered young man, nearly 6 feet 4 inches, had a license to preach.
Lacking the money for college, he joined the Air Force. The job took him around the world, and he joined churches along the way.
Eventually, he went back to school, earned a college degree and found a job as an electrical engineer for the federal government in 1986. After some time in Glen Burnie, the country boy tried the city.
Wolverton and his wife, Vickie, an artist and teacher, began attending Lee Street Memorial Baptist Church -- it's really on Warren Avenue -- in early 1994. By 1996, he had become the youth pastor and founded LifeChangers Ministries, a nonprofit church offshoot.
LifeChangers started by pairing young people with adult Christian mentors. But, increasingly worried about local public schools and the children he encountered, Wolverton began talking about opening a youth center that would include a school.
Encouraged by neighborhood parents, he researched Christian education last summer, contacting two of the state's newer evangelical schools, Chapelgate Christian Academy in Marriottsville and Evangel Christian Academy in Essex.
Rick Cech, Evangel's vice principal, was cautious. He told Wolverton about the difficulty of finding good Christian teachers, about the frustrations of connecting with parents, and about enforcing a traditional dress code on 1990s children.
Wolverton was undeterred.
"Across the nation, there's a huge increase in Christian schools," says Rob VanNess, the Chapelgate headmaster. There were about 500 more Christian schools nationwide in 1995 than in 1990, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. "But they're not easy to start or to run. The culture of the country is changed. The country doesn't accept absolutes. But we have to base our teaching on the absolute fact of God and who he is."
For his part, Rosenberg says he isn't religious. But he believes in Elvis. The King has sustained Herb's Bargain Center for years -- along with the chopped liver sandwiches Herb's wife, Phyllis, makes for beat cops.
"I'm a regular," says Southern District Police Officer Ken Lipman, who patrols the business district on foot. "There's no other place like it."
The Rosenbergs moved into the three-story building at 1038 Light a quarter-century ago.
There, they joined a thriving corridor of small and medium-sized retailers, anchored by Epstein's department store. For a few years, they kept open the existing business, the Arundel Ice Cream Parlor, before devoting all the space to Herb's Bargain Center.
Rosenberg had learned the novelty trade in New York before moving to Baltimore to take a job at Goldenberg's on Eastern Avenue. He built his business by buying salesmen's samples of hard-to-find items.
He stocked the caps of baseball teams that had long ago disappeared. He kept on hand Christmas favors and ornaments that hadn't been made since World War II.
To this day, Baltimoreans can wander in and buy a Baltimore Colts winter hat and decorations for any holiday.
Over the years, the Rosenbergs expanded into neighboring properties, enabling them to stock even more things Elvis. These days, while Phyllis works the counter and Herb pays bills in back, Elvis tunes wash over customers.
Patrons can buy an Elvis Barbie or an Elvis phone (which shakes instead of ringing).
The store's piece de resistance is a Confederate flag with a photo of the King's head in the middle.
In 1995, Herb's health began to deteriorate. He suffered a mild stroke earlier this year. For two years, he has been trying to sell the building. There was little interest until Steve Wolverton came along.
Separately, two weeks apart, Hoffman and Wolverton each walked down Light Street and had a premonition about Herb's and its 11,000-square-foot building. Hoffman says he even dreamed about Herb. "We both just knew that there had to be a school here," says Wolverton.
Men hit it off
Wolverton approached Rosenberg in January. The two very different men took a liking to one another. Wolverton empathized with the store owner's illness. Rosenberg appreciated Wolverton's desire to help the neighborhood. Both like Elvis. Rosenberg offered a five-year lease, with the option to buy.
Wolverton says he would like to accept -- but first, LifeChangers needs to raise $250,000 for the purchase and renovation by the end of May. Wolverton does not have even half yet ("It's currently in a state of prayer," he says). So Rosenberg is keeping the property on the market.
If LifeChangers finds the cash, the school could move into the second and third floors of Herb's by fall. Wolverton hopes to transform the first floor into a Christian youth center and coffeehouse.
Whatever happens with Herb's, LifeChangers' plans call for a slow start next fall, with only ninth and 10th grades.
Those first students will be bused to Evangel for basic classes such as English, science, social studies and math. Courses on the Bible, art and Spanish will be held in southern Baltimore.
Amid fund-raising work, Wolverton is building a board of directors. He has printed brochures that show a picture of Herb's with a new sign superimposed out front: "LifeChangers Ministries: Seeing Lives Changed Through the Power of Jesus Christ."
Willing to work for free
He has begun advertising for a school administrator, an experienced educator and committed Christian willing to work for free for the first few months.
"This will not be easy, and this is not my area of expertise," says Wolverton, who will adopt Evangel's requirement that at least one parent of each student be a born-again Christian. "It's a job only the Lord can do."
In recent weeks, Wolverton has received a polite reception during meetings with parents and community members, though some worry that a new school might drain students and parents from Southern.
"My family couldn't afford it," says Ebron Richmond, a Southern ninth-grader. "I think people should worry about making my school better instead of starting another one."
Wolverton has talked with Southern's principal, Darline Lyles, who expresses qualified support for LifeChangers and "parents who want a choice of schools."
In recent weeks, LifeChangers has been the talk of the student-organized Bible studies held two mornings a week in Southern's Room 316.
"Here we have to pray to God to keep us safe as we walk the halls," says Josh Bowyer, a Southern student who leads the sessions. "It would be good to not worry about that."
The test of the new school may be whether Wolverton and its backers can reach such parents as George and Lena Cosner, financially and spiritually.
George, 41, is a pipefitter. Lena, 35, is an optician. They attend the Inner Harbor Church of God.
The older of their two children, 11-year-old Heather, is two years from high school, "and we've already decided that Southern is not in our vocabulary."
But even the $2,700 LifeChangers tuition would stretch the family budget.
"We'll see if they can get up and going," says Lena Cosner. "You talk to Pastor Wolverton, and you get a good feeling."
Pub Date: 4/14/99