Recycling a Church in Lakewood

While the on Detroit Avenue has reached the end of its lifespan, many of the materials will find a new purpose. 

Some materials will find new life in artisan furniture. Bricks will turn up in Lakewood’s community gardens. While old floor joists will be used as rustic-style ceiling beams.

Those are just a few of the reuses of materials from the church and school at 15501 Detroit Avenue, recently demolished to make way for a new .

During the past several weeks, the St. Paul Lutheran Church carefully came down piece by piece.

Sean McDermott, the development manager for , which is heading up the development, said the demolition took “two to three times longer” than a typical demolition.

He said the careful dissection of the church only added a “few thousand dollars” to the overall cost of the multi-million-dollar project — but said it did add a few weeks to the timeline.

Piles of steel, bricks and pipes are stacked neatly among the rubble waiting to be recycled.

“That’s all stuff that won’t have to go to a landfill," McDermott said.

Here are a few of the plans:

• Some of the blocks and bricks will be crushed and used for fill on other development projects. While truckloads of other bricks will be donated to the organization for use at the city’s community gardens.
• McDermott said the developer worked with Lakewood resident Aaron Gogolin’s company, Reclaimed Cleveland, which will reuse the church’s baseboards, floors and oak casements around the doors. The Cleveland-based company opened the floorboards, ripped out the floor joists and will reuse them to make furniture and cabinets. Additionally, the church’s oak front doors will get reused as tables.
• The original sandstone curb will be incorporated in the landscaping along the edge of the property.
• The church retained the right-of salvage, so it took most of the stained glass windows. An Iowa-based company removed most of them; they are being stored at the on Madison Avenue. However, the church didn't want to keep the steeple, so it's for sale. So are the steeple’s stained glass windows.
• The large trees on the property will be cut down — however, the wood will be used by furniture artisan and Lakewood resident Paul White to make furniture.
• Although the trees on the property will be removed, several aged trees will be planted, including two 8-inch caliper pin oak trees from Southern Ohio (which will stand a towering 35-feet tall when planted), and three 5-inch-caliper maples. “We’re losing a church, and we’re losing a tree canopy, so this will help give a kick-start to the new tree canopy,” McDermott said.