When members of the Disciples of Christ Christian Church headed for the Delaware shore as a place for religious retreats in 1901, it led to the eventual founding of the Town of Bethany Beach, which even now houses the church’s conference center and the operations of the Bethany Beach Christian Church – the church’s local congregation.
More than 100 years later, the church is still home to annual summer retreats by church members – many from the Washington, D.C. area – and those people need a place to stay while meeting and volunteering their time. Presently, most of them are housed in the long-time dormitory facilities at Campbell Hall – the red-faced, cedar-shingled building placed there in 1930 by one of the church’s leaders, for whom both the building and nearby Campbell Place are named.
But the nearly 80-year-old building is no longer able to well accommodate its tenants, church member and former Bethany Beach Town Council Member Wayne Fuller explained to the town’s Non-Residential Design Review Committee (DRC) on Nov. 14.
Fuller, who heads the committee working to make capital improvements to the church property, said Campbell Hall offers no handicapped access for its upper story, making it inaccessible for the elderly and handicapped.
He said it is also in need of constant maintenance, with floors that need repainting regularly, flooding problems from the building’s low-lying location in an area heavily prone to tidal flooding, no central heating or air conditioning system – air circulated only via ceiling fans – and inadequate electrical service to sustain its use or any upgrades the church could reasonably afford. Retrofitting the building, Fuller said, would cost about $1 million.
That has led the church to propose the construction of a new dormitory facility adjacent to Campbell Hall. The project would create a new two-story, L-shaped building along the northeast corner of the church property, adjacent to Pennsylvania Avenue and Central Boulevard, between Campbell Hall and the roadways. It would target completion of the building in the spring of 2012.
Designed by architect John Hendrickson, the building’s architecture would mirror existing church properties, with gray simulated-cedar shingles and white trim, decorative dormers and a central hub between the building’s two wings that would mimic the appearance of the historical Tabernacle that sits at the west side of the 6.5-acre property.
Hendrickson, the DRC’s member-architect, recused himself from consideration of the project on Nov. 14, with the town’s consulting architect Jeff Schoellkopf to serve as professional consultant for the town.
The new building would not only modernize the facility’s dormitories but would add room for more visitors to stay on their retreats. Instead of the eight bedrooms that hold five beds each and one bedroom that holds two beds, it would offer around 72 beds, in both dorm-style rooms assigned to either men or women, with semi-private bathrooms, and family-style suites, some of which would have private baths.
Some of the bedrooms and their private baths would be handicapped-accessible.
Meeting rooms would be created in the Tabernacle-style hub between the dorm wings, while small lounges would be offered near the sleeping rooms. Outside showers would offer a place to rinse off sand from the beach, while screened porches will offer a spot for outdoor respite along each dorm wing.
Along with the new, modern facilities, the building will also see itself rise 5 or more feet from its current elevation, with grading designed to keep it out of the floodwaters that have plagued Campbell Hall. It will be built atop pilings, as well, to ensure a solid foundation despite the area’s high water table.
Future visitors to the conference center may get a break from some of the volunteer work they have traditionally done at the retreat site, since much of that work in recent years has been in maintenance on Campbell Hall itself, including painting the building.
The historic building – as with all of the site’s structures, Fuller noted – is not owned by the local Bethany Beach Christian Church but is instead owned by the central Disciples of Christ (Christian Church), with furnishings owned by the local group.
Fuller said the fate of Campbell Hall had not yet been decided. While it is no longer considered suitable for dormitory accommodations, he said he expected it might be suitable for eventual relocation and rehabilitation as a meeting hall, should the Bethany Beach Christian Church decide to and be able to purchase it from the Disciples of Christ. Otherwise, he said it might be donated or sold and moved off the property, or it could be razed.
That is not likely to happen any sooner than 2013, he said, citing the anticipation of completing the new dormitory building in 2012.
DRC members on Nov. 14 approved the preliminary plans for the new dorm, on a 3-0 vote, with Council Member and DRC Chairman Lew Killmer noting that the DRC will also need to approve landscape, lighting and signage plans for the new facility before construction can begin.
The project will also need approval from the town’s Planning Commission, which Killmer chairs. The first stage of that approval process – review of a sketch plan – was set for the commission’s Nov. 22 meeting.
Killmer also reminded Fuller to take care in planning the timeline for the approval process, as the town allows only one year between preliminary approval – the stage after the sketch plan – and final approval by the commission, and only a year for construction after final approval, though extensions can be obtained. With completion four years out, it may be a while before the project comes back before the town.
That time will largely be spent in raising capital for the project, Fuller noted.