A long-standing parking problem at a historic African American church in downtown Lexington has been resolved through a new agreement.
Main Street Baptist Church leaders said the expansion of Central Bank Center and the upcoming construction of Town Branch Park caused inadequate parking. The agreement, approved by the City Council, has the city re-doing a parking area on the former Jefferson Street Viaduct, creating 85 spots. Wayne Cornelius is an elder at Main Street Baptist.
“So, it’s about six years we’ve been working on this, back and forth. And so, we thank the Lord on how it ended. We just prayerfully waited and watched and prayed for people to do what was right.”
Cornelius said the Church is still trying to secure additional overflow parking spaces in a public garage.
City Chief Administrative Officer Sally Hamilton said the public will be able to access the re-graded lot when the Church is not using it. Hamilton says $1 million in federal recovery funds are going to help cover construction costs.
“And we worked on this for a long, long time, because you have to be very careful. They wanted certain things and we had to take the public responsibility of what we can do for a private church,” said Hamilton.
Main Street Baptist is a historic African American church that dates back to 1854. Pastor Victor Sholar called it a “surreal” moment, adding members are extremely happy to acquire the property for the church. Under the agreement, after the parking lot is built, which could take up to a year to complete, the property will be transferred to the church. The church can’t sell the property until 2034 without permission of the City because of the investment of public funds.
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