In cities across the country, many churches sit dormant, falling into disrepair and losing their status as a central gathering place for the community. So one couple decided to do something about that.Standing near the white stone columns, the high arching ceilings and stained glass windows, you can tell Crispina Ffrench and her husband Chris Swindlehurst are proud to own a 19th century church.
“Every day when I come in here I always think ‘I can’t believe my husband and I own this building,” Ffrench said. “But it’s beautiful because we get to share it with people.”
The couple bought the hulking red-brick Notre Dame Church in downtown Pittsfield, Mass. in 2006 for Ffrench’s production business, which employed 40 people. Swindlehurst says a friend who was buying the Notre Dame School across the street hit him with the idea.
“So I came and just spent a couple hours wandering around and was like ‘Oh my god,’” Swindlehurst said. “I had no intention of buying a building in Pittsfield. I just was so awestruck by its physical beauty inside and all the potential, not the church but the rectory next door, thinking this will be a great rental property and a great place for Crispina’s business down here.”
While Swindlehurst was running his fuel and plumbing business, the couple moved Ffrench’s company from an old mill building in Housatonic to the church basement. They also moved into the rectory, and as Ffrench explains, the “we bought a church experiment” quickly became a family affair for her eldest son.
“He plays music and he could not wait to get into the church with his electric guitar and his amplifier and play Hells Bells as loud as he could,” Ffrench said. “Then my younger kids…we had a trampoline upstairs. They’d come over here in the middle of the winter; it would be like seven below zero outside and about 10 degrees upstairs. They’d be in their winter snow pants and jackets just bouncing away on the trampoline. They learned how to ride their bikes in here. They think it’s normal. They think every kid has this kind of space to play in. They don’t realize that it’s a very unusual setting.
After the 2008 recession, Ffrench’s textile business was no longer bustling, leaving much of the church’s 13,000 square feet unused. French says they went through some really thin years — even putting the property on the market for a short time, not knowing if they could make it work. Raised by artist parents, Ffrench took inventory of what they had and realized they could turn the building into a multi-use “makerspace. They named it Shire City Sanctuary.
“We have a sewing lab, we have a screen printing shop and we have a commercial kitchen,” Ffrench explained. “All of those things are things that many people can share without being in each other’s way. And they’re things that a lot of times people don’t have the ability to have on their own; they’re expensive or too big. So it’s lent itself nicely.”
About 15 people regularly use the space. It works like a gym membership with your own key and 24-hour access to the machines. Ffrench and her other employee offer classes and workshops while the nave where her kids used to bounce on a trampoline is used for events. Swindlehurst is hopeful chefs or farmers can use the commercial kitchen to teach cooking and canning.
All told they have put roughly $800,000 into the buildings, with Swindlehurst reusing church pews and marble from the altars for apartment paneling and countertops in the rectory next door. Despite the money and stress, Ffrench says her husband’s “doctorate in church renovation” is worth it. And he agrees.
“My view is that, I have two great kids and a great wife, and whatever has brought you to where you are today, which is happy and healthy, has to be a good thing,” Swindlehurst said.
