West Virginia Church Now Home to "Armed Joy" Collective
By Daniel Friend, Shepherdstown Chronicle
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — 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@gmail.com
The church residents have a five-year plan for making the former worship 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 transportation 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 ownership of the cemetery.
The Asbury United Methodist Church was the last congregation to worship 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 Corporation 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 Corporation 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.