A once-neglected 19th-century house of worship in Southwest Washington has been given new life, and conservative Americans should take note. What began as a humble, Black-founded congregation in the 1870s and a sturdy Romanesque building in 1886 is now being stewarded into a hybrid space that honors both faith and creative expression, a restoration led in part by National Community Church’s Mark Batterson and local creatives.
This is not a shallow makeover; it’s the revival of Friendship Baptist’s legacy, the congregation organized in 1875 under leaders like Robert S. Laws, who shepherded the flock through Reconstruction and beyond. Preserving the names and stories of those who built this nation’s moral and cultural foundations is not optional — it’s patriotic.
For decades the building slid into decay, but civic-minded visionaries and artists reclaimed the space, transforming it into the Blind Whino arts club and later Culture House with dramatic murals and community programming beginning in the early 2010s. This kind of local initiative — neighbors and entrepreneurs fixing what bureaucrats left to rot — is exactly the private-sector, community-first renewal conservatives champion.
National Community Church, under Batterson’s leadership, now aims to marry that artistic energy with worship and outreach, treating the site as a baton passed between generations rather than a brand to be erased. That stewardship mindset — honoring history while giving it fresh purpose — is the opposite of the erase-and-replace cultural playbook we see from coastal elites.
Make no mistake: this is about more than a building. It’s about standing for the truth that faith, family, and community institutions are worth saving and investing in, not tearing down in the name of some passing trend. When conservatives prioritize restoration and support churches that also serve as community anchors, we strengthen the social fabric that keeps neighborhoods safe and prosperous.
If the left’s cultural mandarins want to strip history down to convenient narratives, citizens and churches should push back by doing what this project did: roll up sleeves, fundraise locally, and convert decay into dignity. This model — honoring the past while empowering local artists and ministries — should be exported to cities where officials have failed to protect heritage and families.
Pastor Batterson and artists like Benjamin Baugham deserve credit for centering the Gospel in a creative revival that refuses to let sacred ground become another casualty of urban neglect. Hardworking Americans who love this country should support similar projects that restore places of worship, preserve memory, and give young people a chance to create and worship without apology.
