A History of Locations:
Metropolitan Community Church of El Paso
by Mike Harman
MCC El Paso member
since 1980
What is now Metropolitan Community Church of El Paso began
in the fall of 1980, meeting in the historic Plaza Hotel in downtown El Paso.
A second-floor ballroom was rented for Sunday morning services, and
congregants enjoyed entering through the grand old lobby and taking the
escalator to what felt like an “upper room” in Conrad Hilton’s first high-rise
hotel, where Elizabeth Taylor had lived while filming Giant in 1956.
After a few weeks in the Plaza Hotel, we were allowed by the
Episcopal Church to use the hall at Saint
Anne's Center free of charge.
Unfortuately, the building had gone unused for several years and the
heat didn’t work, which was not a problem when we first began meeting at Saint
Anne’s in early October. However, as winter and the need of heat approached, we
learned that repairing the gas pipe would cost $800, which was not in our
budget.
We held worship service at 1:00 p.m. on Sundays, so we simply
kept our jackets on as the climate cooled.
A certain Sunday in January brought a quick end to our use of Saint
Anne’s: Snow had fallen the night
before, and its melting revealed a leaky roof and produced soaked
carpeting.
Perhaps our greatest tangible gift from Saint Anne’s are the
two boards we found nailed together; they form the cross we still use in the
front of our church today.
We didn’t hold services that first summer (1981), and regrouped
as a church in the fall to seek a new meeting place. Following our Saint Anne’s experience, we had a new wish list for
our next location. Our search brought us to a storefront in the back corner of
a brand-new complex at 2920 North
Piedras Street. We had finally made
it: a solid roof, electricity, heating, cooling—and even parking out front.
Our next location was our first home after affiliating with
the United Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches. We had been without a pastor for about a
year and a half, and our church leaders felt that finding a less-expensive
location would be wise, as we could save money to hire a new pastor. The new
location was in the same neighborhood, just a little farther north at 3828 North Piedras Street. Ultimately, this venue proved too small; its
refigerated-air wall unit too noisy to run during service; and its cost savings
only $25 a month.
A little more than a year after affiliating with UFMCC, our
first MCC pastors came to El Paso. Obviously,
the church couldn’t grow with seating for only 20 people, so our second order
of business right after completing membership classes was to obtain a new
facility. For about the amount of rent we
thought we could afford, we found an old transmission shop that could be
refurbished. Or, for just an extra $150, we could have an old warehouse located
at 2201 Texas Avenue. Constructed circa 1906, it was well built
and had been well maintained. We had to
build a back wall for the sanctuary, and it took us about a year and a half to raise
the funds for a curtain for to cover the part of the wall where a garage door had
been. This was the largest space we
have ever had as a church. The offices
next to the warehouse space provided room for a fellowship hall, the pastor's
office, two restrooms, a storage basement, a sound booth, and another office.
Eventually, the high costs of repairs and maintenance caused
the church to be unable to afford the rent, and fortunately, the landlord gave
us a discount for our final year in this building.
As we prepared to move out of the Texas Street location, a
church member, voluntereed to allow us to meet in the living room of his home. We strongly desired to be in our first
genuine church building, and we needed to save money toward that goal.
After a few months, we found our next home in Chaparral, New Mexico, 20 miles north
of downtown El Paso. It was our first
and to date only “real church” building we have occupied, complete with a
baptistry! The price was unbeatable at
$200 a month. And to top it off, the
landlord installed a new septic tank for us.
The decor was rather rustic, with exposed beams and an unpainted
concrete floor. We spent our tenth
anniversary as a church in that building.
The location answered many of our needs but proved to be too
far out of town for most people, and once again, our attendance dwindled. Apparently, we needed yet another new
location.
The Southwest AIDS Committee moved out of its building at 914 East Yandell Street into a new
facility. Our pastor generously took a cut in his salary so we could afford
the $500 rent. The facility contained a
sanctuary, a pastor's office, and a lounge.
We had what we needed, and the location was once again in the city.
With another new pastor in our pulpit, we outgrew the
facility on Yandell Street and we moved to one of our longest-term locations at
9455 McRae on the East Side of El
Paso.
After a few years on the eastern side of the city, we
realized we needed and wanted to be nearer Central El Paso in order to better
serve the community. We found a
storefront location at 900 Chelsea
Street, which served our needs for a good while until continued rent
increases, space issues, and lack of landlord support prompted our next
search.
Our current location at 216
South Ochoa Street in downtown El Paso is in the center of the community’s
GLBT night life, which affords MCC El Paso a physical presence and recognition
that it has never before enjoyed. This
charming old building began life as a freight depot; in more recent years, it
has been the GLBT community center and a bar.
Today, in addition to serving as worship, study, and social center for
MCC, the building hosts meetings of Rainbow Recovery and PFLAG and as the venue
for free HIV and STD testings on designated evenings.