“You’re OK, Michael,” and these words, coming from a building inspector Thursday, were a mouthful.
The first times the Rev. Michael Walker walked through this almost-century-old synagogue at East 16th Avenue and Gaylord Street he had to wear a protective face mask and tiptoe in vinyl booties through a heavy layer of pigeon droppings and bird carcasses.
But now, a little more than a year later, the $5.5 million Project Nehemiah is near completion. Dedication of the restored synagogue as Beth Abraham Church in the City is set for 3 p.m. today.
The first Christian worship services are scheduled for 8:30 and 10:45 a.m. Sunday.
Walker, a Messianic Jew, had been leading Church in the City, one of Denver’s most diverse Christian congregations. The group of 1,000 faithful had been meeting in an old converted Safeway grocery store he leased on Josephine Street at East Colfax.
Just a couple blocks away, though, sat this derelict gem, one of Denver’s oldest synagogues, long abandoned.
For Walker, whose grandfather was an Orthodox Jewish rabbi in Bronx, N.Y., restoration of this place would be gesture of respect and love for the faith of his family.
Now, his grandfather’s old stone sign, “Beth Abraham,” hangs in the renovated church entryway, attached to a wall of imported Jerusalem stone meant to evoke the Wailing Wall in the Holy Land.
Walker said he could always see the synagogue’s rich history and inner beauty, even through the broken windows and water-damaged walls spray-painted with obscenities, Satanic symbols and gang signs.
But the synagogue’s dimensions and damage had flummoxed other would-be owners and developers, who tried to imagine carving up the gracefully arched span of its ceiling into condo spaces.
Walker got some heavy-hitter help. Denver developers Charles Woolley and Larry Nelson of St. Charles Town Company helped him acquire the synagogue and the old Hebrew school building next to it, and to oversee the restoration.
“It was meant to be a house of worship,” Nelson said.
St. Charles Town could then acquire an empty Safeway building for future development at that site.
The last pieces of Walker’s puzzle included a low-interest loan for the church from Key Bank and much fund-raising, with large donors such as the Anschutz Foundation carrying the day.
Before work could even begin, 900 cubic yards of bird droppings, contaminated insulation and other debris had to go.
“It was interesting and challenging, bringing this beautiful building back to life,” Nelson said.
Spectrum General Contractors Inc. and a horde of church volunteers pulled it off. Walker estimated about 70 volunteers showed up many Saturdays.
“In the natural world, none of this could happen,” Walker said. He credits the supernatural.
Spectrum president Tom Cella said the project took “a lot of persistence and a lot of positive thinking.”
Alex Dominguez, a 36-year-old church member and project volunteer, said he will show this place and his handiwork to his grandchildren one day.
Going from the Safeway building to here, Dominguez said, “was like the Jews worshipping in makeshift tents in the desert before going to Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem.”
Finishing touches are still being applied. Walker’s wife, Brenda, is re-creating the original stained-glass window designs.
The armrests of seats donated by a downtown theater were still being sanded and stained. Brick flooring was still going down in the kitchen area, and so on. The chore list was still long as the week came to an end.
“We’re gonna get it done,” worker Tony Bresqko hollers at Walker.
Walker just beams his response.
Electa Draper: 303-954-1276 or edraper@denverpost.com
