Keeping watch over the flock at the old Metropolitan Opera House
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<p>The Metropolitan Opera House is home to the Holy Ghost Headquarters Church. Behind the pulpit a curtain conceals a swimming pool used to baptize new members of the congregation. (Kimberly Paynter/for NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>Once the home of a thriving congregation in the '50s and '60s, the numbers of the church in the Metropolitan Opera House have since dwindled. (Kimberly Paynter/for NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>A tarp placed above the church's service area keeps pieces of the Metropolitan Opera House ceiling from falling into the congregation. (Kimberly Paynter/for NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>The Metropolitan Opera House was once the performance space of opera companies from Philadelphia and New York. It was built to accommodate about 4,000 spectators. (Kimberly Paynter/for NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>A few relics from the Metropolitan Opera House's previous life compete with ceiling debris on the balcony. (Kimberly Paynter/for NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>Structural steel is falling out of the Metropolitan Opera House's walls. (Kimberly Paynter/for NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>Some evidence of attempts to repair the Metropolitan Opera House arecan be found lying around. (Kimberly Paynter/for NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>Weeds grow out of the front of the Metropolitan Opera House. (Kimberly Paynter/for NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>The front of the Metropolitan Opera House is exposed to the elements. (Kimberly Paynter/for NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>Elaborate ornamentation in the Metropolitan Opera House hints at a grander time for the building. (Kimberly Paynter/for NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>The Metropolitan Opera House could once seat 4,000. (Kimberly Paynter/for NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>The Metropolitan Opera House was designed by theater architect William H. McElfatrick. (Kimberly Paynter/for NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>The Children's Room in the Metropolitan Opera House hints at what a revived building could bring. (Kimberly Paynter/for NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>Developer Eric Blumenfeld plans to work with the church's pastor to revive the Metropolitan Opera House. "I see Versailles," says Blumenfeld. (Kimberly Paynter/for NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>Neighborhood resident James Johnson has been a member of the church for 10 years. He also does maintenance work at the opera house. (Kimberly Paynter/for NewsWorks)</p>
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<p>Philadelphia's Metropolitan Opera House was built in 1908. It has been neglected over time and now stands dilapidated. Developers of the North Broad corridor are planning to revive the building. (Kimberly Paynter/for NewsWorks)</p>
The Metropolitan Opera House is just one of Philadelphia’s many aging buildings. But the massive structure on North Broad Street at Poplar is not vacant — members of the Holy Ghost Headquarters church meet there even though weeds are growing out of the exterior walls.
To say it looks rough inside the Metropolitan Opera House is a huge understatement. Shards of wood and fallen pieces of the walls and ceiling litter the floor.
That’s where church member and neighborhood resident James Johnson comes in. He picks up a broom he’s fashioned out of pipes duct-taped together to form an extra long handle.
And then he demonstrates how he helps keep this crumbling giant on life support: pulling chunks of the ceiling off the tarp where they have fallen — to protect the space underneath where the churchgoers meet.
“Quite a few times on the tarp, if you get too much build up on there, if we do, then we get these big long brooms right there to keep it clean. Back then, there probably was plaster of Paris or something they would put in these buildings or something,” Johnson says. “I’m not sure.”
A bunch of wooden ladders sits nearby. Johnson says they have a purpose too.
“We had brought them up here to climb up there, you know, to get out the different places on the balcony,” he says. “We’d nail up something around here that we’re not using, you know, to keep the birds and everything out.”
Johnson pulls back a tarp over the wall and suddenly the space is open to the outside. “See back here is like the balcony,” he says. “See this is Broad Street right here.”
This is just one of many once-grand buildings on North Broad Street awaiting a new life.
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