SOCIAL - POLITICAL COMMENTARY: Transitions: Ruin

Old Saint George Church is a historic Catholic church in the Clifton Heights neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio, near the University of Cincinnati. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on March 3, 1980 as St. George Parish and Newman Center. 

The red brick church was designed by Samuel Hannaford in the Romanesque Revival style, and opened in 1873. Declining attendance brought about by shifts in neighborhood demographics and worship habits in the 1970s and 1980s led the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati to consolidate the parish with St. Monica's and close the church in 1993. The property was sold the following year to a group called the Christian Ministries Center, which operated a community and arts center out of it until 2004. St. George's two steeples caught fire and partially collapsed on February 1, 2008.[2] 

In March 2015, Crossroads Church acquired the property from the Clifton Heights Community Urban Development Corporation and announced plans to renovate and occupy it as their fifth location in Ohio. The church has completed a $13 million renovation of the building and tried to preserve the building's historic character. The stained glass windows in the main sanctuary and the leaded glass in the friary were all stabilized and preserved. The vaulted ceilings of the sanctuary were also stabilized and cleaned but not repainted in order to let the history of the building show through. Crossroads began hosting services there on Aug. 21, 2016. 

Crossroads wanted a presence Uptown because churches across the country are shutting their doors because of a lack of life or interest coming in from a younger generation, she said. 

"Having this location on the corner of UC's campus gave us an opportunity to reach out and bring the younger generation into the church – a generation that's given up on church," Schuler said. 

This is an image of the church gallery.