Demolition begins at The Word Church in Akron, one of the country’s first megachurches

The beginning of the end is here for the former Akron Baptist Temple — most recently The Word Church — one of the country's first megachurches featuring radio and TV broadcasts nationwide.

On Tuesday, the Eslich Wrecking Company began demolishing the 236,000-square-foot building, using an excavator to take a bite out of the corner of a garage on the south side of the complex.

Speaking onsite, Akron Mayor Shammas Malik said: "When I came into office, one of the things that I wanted to do as a retired ward councilman is to address persistent neighborhood issues. And the structure behind us has been a persistent neighborhood issue for the last several years."

The Akron Baptist Temple was a cornerstone of the city's faith community, he said, and a historically significant structure. The last few years, however, it has become "a significant blight on this community in this neighborhood," Malik said.

Since being purchased by The Word Church in 2018, the building has been left to deteriorate, creating a public safety hazard.

Ward 9 Councilwoman Tina Boyes thanked the mayor and his administration for prioritizing the demolition of the structure.

"It's important that we hold all property owners, even public and nonprofit entities, to the same standard," Boyes said. "So thank you for taking this important first step to making this a positively contributing parcel once again, and I look forward to bringing vibrancy back to Ward 9."

The Word Church demolition costs and other details

Malik said the city will "be as aggressive as we can in collecting" repayment of the $1.24 million the city budgeted for demolition costs from The Word Church.

"With that being said, we we believe that a portion of it, up to $700,000, will be covered by state funds through the Summit County Land Bank," Malik said. However, the city won't know until the summer if it will receive the funding.

In a press release issued Tuesday, the law firm Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs, which represents The Word Church, said the church has fully cooperated with the city to get the building demolished as quickly, safely and efficiently as possible.

"The Word Church was planning an orderly exit strategy by listing the Building for sale right before the pandemic," the news release said. During the pandemic, the building was left empty and targeted by trespassers and vandals despite attempts to secure the building.

"The current status of the building is an unfortunate condition which was out of The Word Church’s control."

The property remains for sale.

The city's Business Retention and Expansion Manager Brad Beckert said the demolition will take about 90 days.

Beckert said water will be deployed on the demolition site to stop asbestos from entering the air. The asbestos will be loaded into a covered truck and taken to a specialty dump in Minerva. He warned that it would be dangerous for anyone to take a physical keepsake from the building due to its condition and the presence of asbestos.

It's safer to keep the church in memory, he said.

Acting Police Chief Brian Harding said the Akron fire and police departments worked together to make sure there was no one in the building before demolition got underway.

Over the past few weeks, Summit County Continuum of Care, Community Support Services and the Homeless Charity and Village have been performing outreach efforts at the site.

History of the Akron Baptist Temple

The first iteration of the Akron Baptist Temple was built in 1937 for $60,000 near Rimer Elementary School, where the congregation began meeting. By 1949, the original building was too small to house its congregation, so a new one was built.

Akron Baptist Temple's founder Dallas F. Billington was a pioneer in televangelism, taking his sermons to the radio in the 1940s and 1950s. By the 1960s, it appeared on more than 30 TV stations.

In 1981, the 4,000-seat main sanctuary burned to the ground. Fire investigators suspected but couldn't prove arson. It was rebuilt in 1983.

Akron Baptist Temple sold the church and its 29 acres in June 2018 for $1.5 million to The Word Church. Overextended and underattended, The Word put a $3.9 million for-sale sign on the location up in June 2019.

In February, Malik announced that the church would be demolished because of the hazard it poses to public safety.

Great-granddaughter of Akron Baptist Temple founder Dallas F. Billington shares memories

Alexis Warlop, 41, is Billington's great-granddaughter. Her family moved up from Florida when she was 12 so that her father, the Rev. Dallas R. Billington, could take over from her grandfather, the Rev. Charles F. Billington. Warlop said she was ecstatic.

The church holds a special place in her heart. It was where she was baptized and where she would play hide-and-seek as a kid.

"I grew up there," she said. "I was there more, it felt like, than my own home. And I knew every square inch of that church inside and out."

Warlop remembers the church's annual Thanksgiving turkey giveaway, when people would spill out of the doors of the church waiting for a turkey. Regardless of whether or not they were a member of the church, they got their bird.

"And then we'd also provide, you know, food to go with it so that people would have an actual Thanksgiving dinner," she said.

She remembers her grandfather saying, "you can't lead anybody to Jesus on an empty stomach," a concept she said he pulled from Matthew 25:35.

News of the demolition has been hard on her. She's lost sleep over it. Warlop and her siblings have been talking about the memories they made there and how sad they are.

There was a hope, she said, that her father could get the church back one day.

On Tuesday, she was picking her son up early from school to take him by the site, even though it's in poor condition these days. Warlop wants him to be proud of his familial connection to the old church, to be inspired by the legacy of the place, "so that if he wants to go into ministry himself one day, to know that you come from a lineage of men that they've been extremely passionate about reaching people for the Lord."

Contact reporter Derek Kreider at DKreider@Gannett.com or 330-541-9413

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Demolition begins at the Word Church in Akron