Historic Shiloh church may be torn down soon
The 107-year-old Shiloh Baptist Church on Hayes Avenue in Butler will have a date with a wrecking ball, unless someone or an organization steps up to relocate the building and save its place in the history of one of the most tragic events of the Civil War.
Acting as the city board of health Thursday, Butler City Council found the vacant church detrimental to public health and approved its demolition, but not before Councilman Jeff Smith read a brief history of the church and encouraged someone to relocate the building to preserve its history. He asked to delay demolition for 90 days to allow time for someone to express interest in saving the church.
The last of the church's trustees died earlier this year, and there are other owners of the property, city officials said.
The building has cracks in the foundation and water damage in the basement from flooding. All its bathroom fixtures are missing, and the structure is not connected to the public sewer system, said building code official John Evans.
The city condemned the church Dec. 30, 2020 and labeled it unfit for human occupancy.
According to an Eagle article written by Bill May, historian and former city councilman, Lettie Hall, the wife of pastor David Brown Dade, was born a slave in Maryland and was owned by Confederate sympathizer Dr. Samuel Mudd of Charles County, Md.
Mudd set the broken leg that John Wilkes Booth suffered while fleeing from Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. after shooting President Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865.
Booth and his fellow conspirator Davey Herold arrived at 4 a.m. April 15 at Mudd's home. He woke up Lettie Hall and her sister, Louisa Cristie, to prepare a meal for the escaping fugitives.
In 1929, Lettie Hall Dade gave an interview to J.A. Roberts of Butler about her role in Booth's visit to the Mudd home. The interview was conducted at the request of an author of a never-to-be-published book, “Unwritten History of the Negro in the United States.” The unedited interview was published in the Butler Eagle on March 16, 1929.
After marrying Dade, she lived in Butler for the next 14 years. She died in 1936 at the family residence at 114 Madison Avenue in the Island section of the city and was buried in an unmarked grave in Butler's Rose Hill Cemetery, until five years ago, when the Dr. Samuel Mudd Society erected a stone marking her final resting place.
In other business, council approved a request from Butler Downtown to hold a “Yoga and Brews” event on the roof of the Centre City garage from 7 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. July 17.Council also agreed to close Main Street, from Wayne to Pearl streets, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Aug. 15 for Cruise-a-Palooza, sponsored by the Rodfathers of Butler.
