Members of historic Black church demolished by city want $70K ‘demolition lien’ dropped
“They charged the church for knocking the church down.”
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Mt. Carmel Missionary Baptist Church was established in 1915 in the heart of Freedmen’s Town.
In 1940, the pastor and congregants built a new church at the intersection of Ruthven and Valentine streets.
When bricks began falling from the structure in May 2008, city of Houston inspectors deemed it unsafe and demolished it.
“They did not give us a chance to try to fix it. Physically it hurt, it was just like seeing a part of you destroyed,” said longtime member and church trustee Lue Ammon Williams.