“The world tells us to seek success, power, and money.
God tells us to seek humility, service, and love.”
~ Pope Francis
Walking back from the allergist’s I stopped to photograph the popular Italian restaurant, Joe Bologna’s. As you can see, it’s in an old church. In all my years in Lexington I never knew what church it was until now. According to Joe B’s website, the church was built in 1890 by the congregation of the First Presbyterian Church. Upon dedication a year later, they named it Maxwell Street Presbyterian Church. It seated 400. It was quite modern with its gas lights and furnace. They soon outgrew the place, and sold it to Ohavay Zion in 1912. Zion’s original twenty-five members grew their temple steadily, and built on to the structure over the years, leaving the original building intact. By 1986, they, too, had outgrown the space, and in 1989, Joe B’s moved in. The restaurant has retained as much of the original building as possible, from the wood floors to the stained glass windows. The funniest part of all is that the bar sits where the pulpit used to be. The Presbyterians would approve I suspect. This is one fine example of how a traditional building can be updated and made functional yet retain the charm and class of the original building. Kudo’s to you, Joe Bologna’s!
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