Delores Graves remembers how some Deanwood residents squawked in the 1980s when they had a choice between a halfway house or a church moving into a home at the corner of 47th Place and Nash Street NE.
They got the Rome Baptist Church, which, at the time, many felt was the community's saving grace. Now there are 32 churches in Deanwood, five within a few blocks of Graves's home.
Resident Delores Graves, left, and ANC member Muriel Chambers say neighbors haven't been consulted about plans for new churches in their area. (Larry Morris -- The Washington Post)
She and other Deanwood residents say they are not opposed to churches but to the traffic they bring to the narrow streets, the shortage of parking spaces and worship services with loud music that run late into the night.
"We have enough churches on this street," said Carolyn Ricanek, who lives next door to where the Seventh Church of Christ Scientist is under construction. "We need a moratorium on building churches. Instead of being Deanwood, it should be Churchwood."
Ricanek, who moved to her home 39 years ago, said parking for the 70-seat church will cause "nothing but chaos."
Bettie Thompson, who has identified herself to residents as the church's pastor, and other church members did not respond to several telephone calls and a note left at the church's current yellow brick Capitol Hill storefront at 509 11th St. SE.
Advisory Neighborhood Commission representative Muriel Chambers, of Ward 7, said Thompson has said the building under construction will be a church library. Chambers said the ANC was not consulted in advance about the latest neighborhood addition.
"There are 32 churches in a half-mile radius," said Chambers, who lives across the street from Macedonia Community Church and down the street from Randall Memorial United Methodist Church. "We feel we're being dumped on. There's a house church on that corner, a big church behind it. We've decided to fight back."
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