Businessman Mark Dent got his first look inside the old Mount Vernon United Methodist Church, in Hampden, on Jan. 5, 2010, 18 months after a lightning strike ended its life as a house of worship.
Dent was looking to relocate his multimillion-dollar computer company, Chesapeake Systems, and its 23 employees from cramped quarters in the nearby Mill Centre to more spacious digs. He was intrigued by the idea of moving into the once-beautiful, 9,000-square-foot church at the corner of West 33rd Street and Chestnut Avenue. The church held its first service in 1879 to serve Hampden's mill workers and remained an active congregation until the lightning strike Aug. 2, 2008.
But the church didn't look like much when Dent first saw it.
"It was terrible," he recalled. "There was no ceiling. There were holes in the floor that you could see down to the basement from where the firemen knocked down wires."
And the smell from accumulated pigeon guano "would knock you out," he said.
"It was a sight."
Today, as Chesapeake Systems holds a grand opening ceremony at the stone church, 801 W. 33rd St., visitors will find it a sight of a much different sort — a heavily renovated building with a banner outside announcing, "Macintosh Sales, Service & Training."
Dent, of Kingsville, and his partner, George Brecht, of Towson, spent $280,000 to buy the church and $550,000 more to renovate it for commercial use, with moral support from area residents. They also convinced the Baltimore City Council to approve the rezoning the church site, after wrangling with city planning officials over spot zoning issues.
"Our use is less dense than the church use," Dent said.
He and Brecht are now applying to the city's Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation, or CHAP, for historic tax credits.
The building still retains a church-like look and feel. The M.P. Moller organ and pipes from 1914 are still behind the altar, which is now a sitting area. Stained glass windows have been restored to their original grandeur or replaced to look as much as possible like the originals. The stone walls and chestnut beams have been restored. Hickory floors have been installed. Brecht's daughter, Courtney Brecht, an artist in New York and a graduate of Bryn Mawr, designed a new stained glass window for the Chestnut Avenue side of the building
A stone ramp was built outside — at a cost of about $40,000 — to make the building accessible to people with disabilities, but in keeping with its historic status, Dent and Brecht said.
A few more fixes are in the offing. Dent said he might repair the organ, although an estimate they got was "some crazy figure," Dent said.
And he reasoned, "How often are you going to play it?"
The chimney will be capped and landscaping work was being done last week. Surprisingly, Dent hasn't yet gotten lightning protection, but he wasn't too concerned because the steeple is gone and he thinks the church is no longer a sitting target.
"It doesn't have a huge piece of metal protruding into the sky like it used to," he said.
Although the ribbon-cutting ceremony was set for Wednesday, Sept. 21, "We've been in since July," Brecht said.
The building looks lived-in, but for a very different use. Founded in 1990, Chesapeake Systems provides workplace and work flow systems through two divisions, Chesapeake Professional Services for the video/broadcast, defense and education industries, and Chesapeake Systems Home & Office for professional and corporate clients — "like an Apple store for small businesses," Dent said.
The building features a lab for repairing and testing computers and technology systems. It also features training rooms, sales areas and an apartment for the night watchman and deliveryman, Ray Reding.
But it also boasts a large space that Dent and Brecht envision as being used by community and church groups.
"We're open to all that," Dent said.
And professional photographer Bob Stockfield leases the old pastor's office as a studio.
"'I'm an interdenominational photographer," Stockfield quipped.