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Area church now home to collective
Shepherdstown reaction to group mixed; some members anarchists
By DANIEL FRIEND / Chronicle Staff Writer
POSTED: April 5, 2008
SHEPHERDSTOWN -- Shepherdstown’s Old Episcopal Church at 113 N. Church
St. -- arguably the oldest church in West Virginia -- is now home to a
group of young tenants calling it the Armed Joy Collective House.
Naming their home of two months after the 1977 anarchist pamphlet “Armed
Joy” by Italian activist Alfredo M. Bonanno, the six collective house
occupants hope to foster a sense of community and self-sufficiency in
Shepherdstown.
Collective house resident Patricia “Trish” Tanksley said the group has
been given permission by the town’s Parks & Recreation Committee to
plant community garden plots off Mill Street in the area of Cullison
Park. The Community Garden Collective is encouraging residents to
participate in the organic community garden, Tanksley said.
Some of the members of the collective house are anarchists, Tanksley
said, quick to emphasize not everyone who lives there is an anarchist.
She herself thinks “anarchy is very beautiful.” The “Armed” in Armed Joy
does not refer in any way to guns, she said.
“Rest assured that we are not of the school of thought of violent
uprising,” Tanksley said. “Anarchy is very misunderstood as being a
destructive system that breaks everything down ... The idea is taking
control of your own life. It’s not like we’re going to go out and force
people to be joyful.”
The garden plots off Mill Street will be open from dawn to dark. The
group hopes for donations of garden tools from the community and has
four 4-by-10-foot garden plots tilled and available for $20 for the
growing season. If there’s more interest, more gardening beds will be
made. The group plans a Community Garden Collective meeting at 7 p.m.
Tuesday in the Cacapon Room of Shepherd University’s Student Center on
King Street.
“We want to let people know about ... the option of being
self-sufficient by growing your own food,” Tanksley said. Those
interested can contact the group at shepherdstowngarden@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
church residents have a five-year plan for making the former wor****p
space into a “community building,” she said.
“We are eventually going to use the space for workshops and art shows
and music,” Tanksley said.
The group also wants to get a fleet of bicycles to loan out from the
church as a means of alternative trans****tation for the town.
On April 30, the collective house plans to host author Chris Carlsson
during a public talk in the church. Carlsson’s new book “Nowtopia: How
Pirate Programmers, Outlaw Bicyclists, and Vacant-Lot Gardeners are
Inventing the Future Today!” is set for publication in May.
A rich and varied history
Shepherdstown’s Capt. William Morgan presumably is among several
Revolutionary War veterans buried at the Episcopal Cemetery on Church
Street.
Historians can’t say without a doubt that he is there, as there is no
known tombstone for Morgan (1723-1788). As legend has it, his grave is
under the east chancel of the Old Episcopal Church at Church and High
streets.
The first church building in Shepherdstown, The English Church built of
logs, is said to have stood there about 1745, according to the Historic
Shepherdstown Commission’s publication “See Shepherd’s Town III.” In
1769 the log building was replaced by a stone church, Mecklenburg
Chapel. Trinity Episcopal Church retains owner****p of the cemetery.
The Asbury United Methodist Church was the last congregation to wor****p
there and sold the building to Princess Street resident Carlos
Niederhauser in December 2006. He then applied to convert the structure
to a residence and restore it.
In the past year, the church building has been the subject of hearings
at the Planning Commission, Landmarks Commission and Board of Zoning
Appeals. Niederhauser is renting the church -- which he has divided into
two dwellings -- to the six residents, who hail from Shepherdstown,
Frederick, and Pennsylvania.
A lawsuit is filed; planning review set
High Street residents Maura and Allan Balliett have filed a lawsuit in
the Circuit Court of Jefferson County, saying Niederhauser is renting
the house “without the necessary building and use permits and certain
agents of the Town appear to have knowingly permitted such violation.”
Named in the suit are the Shepherdstown Planning Commission, former
planning and zoning officer John E. Mathews III, Carlos Niederhauser and
Elizabeth Wheeler (as owners of the property), and “A, B, C, D, E, F,
being unknown tenants who unlawfully occupy the premises ...”
That the Cor****ation of Shepherdstown has approved multiple watertaps
for the property has facilitated the unlawful use of the premises, the
Ballietts contend. They want the Circuit Court to invalidate the
building permit and water taps the Cor****ation of Shepherdstown issued
to Niederhauser.
Town Councilman Stuart Wallace, also a member of the Planning
Commission, said the Commission’s regular April 21 agenda includes a
review of “the situation at that property relative to the Title 9
planning ordinances.”
Wallace said the agenda item is in response to the complaint that the
property is not being used in accordance with the zoning ordinances.But
the structure’s residents themselves “shouldn’t be a part of what the
Planning Commission will take up on the 21st,” Wallace said. He lives
with his family on High Street and said he’s not concerned about the
anarchist facet of the collective house.
“As long as it doesn’t manifest itself in some bizarre way, I guess I
really don’t care,” Wallace said. “I guess you can be an anarchist in
America.”
Balliett said though the residents claim to subscribe to a benign form
of anarchy, the associations with anarchy remain.
“It’s like yelling ‘Fire!’ in a crowded room and then saying ‘I didn’t
mean that kind of fire,’” he said.
--
Dan Clore
My collected fiction: _The Unspeakable and Others_
http://tinyurl.com/2gcoqt
Lord We˙rdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://tinyurl.com/292yz9
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
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Skipper: Professor, will you tell these people who is
in charge on this island?
Professor: Why, no one.
Skipper: No one?
Thurston Howell III: No one? Good heavens, this is anarchy!
-- _Gilligan's Island_, episode #6, "President Gilligan"
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