I first visited the former Corpus Christi Roman Catholic Church in Jennings in April of 2012, and at the time it was still occupied as a seniors’ center. In fact, it has become one of my most popular posts.
When I went back in December of 2016, things seemed to have been looking up, with needed repairs to the roof having occurred.
But when I went back in May of 2019, I was deeply disturbed at what I saw: an obviously abandoned and neglected building that was already showing the signs of a lack of maintenance.
When I went back last weekend, I was pretty much horrified at what I saw, and honestly didn’t feel like getting out of the car. The front of the church was so shrouded in overgrowth already in the early summer that I can’t imagine what it will look like by late August. Yes, the front door is in that mess in the photo above.
The roof, which apparently suffers from fundamental design flaws, is now rapidly deteriorating. And the school? I can’t imagine it lasting much longer before a “mysterious” fire guts it and an emergency demolition brings it down. There is no money to tear it down beforehand, and it’s clearly already reached the “tree growing out of the roof” stage.
