Announcing ShilohDC Blog

1400 block 9th Street NW, west side -- looking towards Shiloh Baptist

From the Rebuilding le slum Historique blog (slightly edited):

[He] started a new blog focused solely on Shiloh Baptist Church's negative impact on the Shaw neighborhood. The Web page is very much a work in progress and needs a lot of content presently. My goal, for now, is for ShilohDC to document the ways in which Shiloh Baptist Church detrimentally impacts the Shaw neighborhood (primarily through its poor stewardship of property, as evidenced poignantly by its portfolio of vacant, rotting, criminal-inviting buildings). Hopefully ShilohDC will serve as a mechanism for accountability for the Church. Suggestions for content and submissions of photos are welcome.
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I have written about this broad issue for some time, as well as the egregious behavior of Shiloh Church specifically.

My short point is that many (not all) churches work to keep neighborhoods squalid, because this keeps property values down (reduces demand), and makes it easier for the church to acquire adjoining and nearby properties at reduced prices.

One of the unintended negative consequences of churches in mixed use districts is that they have disproportionate power to do harm to commercial property owners. Shiloh is a perfect example. It maintains properties on 9th Street NW in a manner that if they weren't a church, would likely result in massive fines, if not property seizure. Instead they skate along.

And their failure to maintain the properties makes revitalization of 9th Street NW a seemingly impossible task.

Shiloh challenges restaurant liquor licenses for establishments on 9th Street NW probably because they want to keep higher demographic patrons from sampling the neighborhood and possibly considering living there, which would increase housing demand, thereby competing with the Church in the property market.

Rebuilding le slum Historique blogs about the Vegetate liquor license issue here, "Shiloh Doth Protest Too Much."

Shiloh let these buildings rot. 1500 block 9th Street NW, west side (Carter G. Woodson House on far left)


The same block in better days--when Shiloh Baptist Church didn't own the buildings! Photo circa 1970s, from the Scurlock Collection, Smithsonian Institution.