International folk alliance’s documentary up for awards
Slavalachia blends Slavic and Appalachian music.
As a teenager obsessed with Radiohead, Brett Hill never imagined his musical breakthrough would come from something like the formation of Slavalachia. The Slavic-Appalachian Folk Alliance’s still-unfinished documentary, “The Road to Slavalachia,” is a nominee in two categories at the ADAMI Media Prize in Tbilisi in the country of Georgia. It is up for a Jury Award, which will be announced Dec. 10, and an Audience Award that is open to online voting through Dec. 9 at www.adamimediaprize.eu.
Hill, a graduate of Dayton Christian, had relocated to Athens, Ohio, where he met Belarusian folk archivist Siarhei Douhushau on a tour stop in 2019.
“Siarhei’s life’s work is collecting the various music in the folk traditions of Belarus, which is currently going through a lot of struggle and strife,” Hill said. “They’ve been subjugated by one people or another for three to four centuries, going back to the Polish Lithuanians to Napoleon, Hitler and the Soviets. They’ve always been under someone’s thumb, and the folk peoples have always been the ones to be subjugated, so Siarhei collects that music.
“I went and saw the show, and it was amazing,” Hill continued. “They had flutes and guitars and were singing these amazing songs. I loved what he was doing, so I asked if he wanted to jam. Two nights later, Slavalachia was born.”
Sonic synchronicity
Despite the difference in cultures and musical styles, Hill found a kinship with Douhushau and the other players.
“We had nine or 10 musicians in a room,” Hill said. “Five were Appalachian and four or five Slavs showed up from out of the woodwork around Athens. There were Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians, and we ended up having a jam where we fused our music. It was amazing.
“Siarhei sang these Belarusian songs, and we played banjos and did these droning gospel harmonies over them,” Hill continued. “We played these Appalachian murder ballads, and he played flute and did these Slavic wails. We found this really energetic core that attached the origin
of construction was limited to $20,000. Though the search for an adequate site took many months, a lot on the corner of May St. (present day E. 4th St.) and Dutoit St. was selected with construction beginning immediately.
The new Trinity Chapel was dedicated on July 7, 1872. With a total cost of about $25,000, Pastor Stelling had the responsibility of raising money to pay off a $7,000 debt. Sunday school was held at the chapel for the next eight years under Superintendent Joseph R. Gebhart.
Even though the original plan had been to start a church at Trinity Chapel, the council made the decision to close the Sunday school and sell the property.
In 1883, the German Baptists purchased the property for $8,000 from the First Lutherans.
During the Great Flood of 1913, the Second German Baptist Church served as a relief station for any sufferers affected by the flood.
Services were held exclusively in the German language until World War I. In 1918, the name of the church was changed to the Fourth Street Baptist Church due to anti-German sentiment during the war. The church started holding its services entirely in English in 1931.
The congregation announced plans to construct a new church building in January 1946 at 508 Shroyer Rd., bounded by Krebs Ave. and Shadowlawn Ave., with a name change to become the Shroyer Road Baptist Church. Ground wasn’t broken until Oct. 31, 1949, with the cornerstone being laid on May 7, 1950. Designed in the Colonial architectural style by Rollin E. Gebhart, the building would cost $100,000 to construct.
Even though the E. Fourth St. building was sold to the First Pentecostal Holiness Church in 1945, the plan was for the Fourth Street Baptist Church to hold Sunday morning services there until construction was completed on the new building. On Dec. 31, 1950, the E. Fourth St. building sustained $15,000 worth of extensive damage from a defective chimney. An insurance claim made for $10,000 was paid back to the church.
Huffman Elementary School (now Huffman Place, a senior living facility) became the congregation’s temporary place of worship until the new Shroyer Rd. building was ready for occupancy.
Additional years of transition
On Feb. 13, 1951, the building ownership changed hands yet again, this time being sold to the Calvary Gospel Tabernacle for $2,900. Despite the damage from the fire, services were held two weeks after the sale of the property. Repairs and restoration of the building were performed by members of the congregation, which helped in cutting the cost of the work.
Shroyer Road Baptist Church’s first service by the former Fourth Street Baptist Church congregation was held on Easter Sunday, Mar. 25, 1951, even though construction wouldn’t be fully completed until November of that year.
Calvary Gospel Tabernacle rededicated the newly renovated interior of its sanctuary at 1420 E. 4th St. on Sunday,
Nov. 11, and Monday, Nov. 12, 1951. In April 1953, the Calvary Gospel Tabernacle changed its name to the East Dayton Assembly of God Church. The church was renamed a second time in the same month to Central Assembly of God Church.
The St. Paul Tabernacle Church moved from 1554 Richard St. (close to the Davis-Linden Building and former Hewitt Soap Factory buildings) in May 1961, after purchasing the building from the Central Assembly of God Church. Their first service was on Sunday, May 21, 1961. The church was regularly featured in advertisements printed in the Dayton Daily News as “The friendly church — where Jesus is real.”
The church became Grace Temple beginning on Mar. 15, 1965, with 7:30 nightly services after the building was purchased from the St. Paul Tabernacle Church. Shortly before Christmas 1965, a car belonging to a visiting friend of Grace Temple’s Rev. Martin Baxter was stolen from the church parking lot. The car contained 60 pounds of candy that Baxter had ordered for the children of the church. Unfortunately, an order refill for the candy couldn’t be filled on such short notice.
Rev. Baxter went on to visit American servicemen fighting in the Vietnam War in late February 1967 as part of a group of 15 clergymen and businessmen of the Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship International.
In 1970, the United Christian Center took ownership of the building and held services until July 1988, when the church moved to 433 Oak St. (now the City Movement Church) in the South Park Historic District. The Horizon of Hope Ministry purchased the building close to the same time frame for $93,000 to use as its permanent sanctuary, a place to provide meals (breakfast and dinner) plus clothing to those in need seven days a week and a daycare. A Dayton Daily News article from Dec. 14, 1989, detailed one of the historic building’s shortcomings.
Those attending 11:30 a.m. Sunday worship services had to climb 34 steps to the 450seat sanctuary. On average, the congregations were no larger than 60. Horizon of Hope’s Rev. Ed Saunders said at the time, “There are no three easy steps to finding Christ here.”
In April 1992, the Horizon of Hope Ministry moved to Third and St. Clair Streets. In August 1992, Jesus Church Ministries started holding services in the building. The same ministry held their 1998 CampMeeting convention at the now-demolished Hara Arena’s Ballarena featuring MC Hammer. By the time the last service was held in 2003, Jesus Church Ministries had become Christ Worldwide Church, which moved to Huber Heights at 6121 Brandt Pike in the Marian Meadows Shopping Center.
In 2004, the church building was sold to a buyer who planned to convert the space into a single-family home. The space was lived in for a short amount of time, and renovation plans never materialized, leaving the building vacant for approximately 17 years. In June 2020, the roof of the church was replaced to help keep the building dry and stable from further deterioration.
A new outlook toward the future
Unfortunately, the requirements for historic tax credits are not feasible for this project. Since the Jahns are not applying for tax credits, they’re pivoting their plans to obtain funding.
“We plan on flipping houses and using the profit to slowly finance the renovation. We just don’t have the resources that the big developers have. It’s been very disheartening. Being a small business, we have a number of challenges that a larger developer may not face. We have limited funds. We don’t have all the connections with contractors, and the pace at which we will work is much slower than a typical project of this scope.”
The Jahns are hoping to live in the church in less than five years.
“We are just two average people with a dream to live in a converted church. However, along our journey, we discovered we are inspired by the community and the amazing things Dayton and the residents have to offer. We are inspired by taking old, discarded, vacant houses and making affordable homes for other average families. Also, we are inspired to acquire houses in disrepair and left to crumble from irresponsible slumlords and make our neighborhood safe, clean, walkable and connected.”
Check out Existing Footprint Properties on Instagram at @existingfootprintproperties and on Facebook at facebook.com/existingfootprintproperties.