Last summer, Homeretta Ayala, a church musician in Baltimore, Maryland, learned that the congregation of Danville's First Christian Church, a fixture on Jefferson Avenue for more than 90 years, was disbanding and was offering for sale their striking High Victorian Gothic style church. The image that first caught the eye of this organist for Baltimore’s venerable Mt. Vernon Place Church was not the picture of First Christian’s 125-year-old brick-and-stucco edifice, but of its century-old pipe organ. After inspecting the facility, “Homer,” as she likes to be called, and her husband Joseph—who also is a church musician—were hooked ... on the organ. So, this past September they bought the organ and, of course, the building that came with it.

In the past three months, Homer and Joe Ayala worked quickly to adapt the church as an innovative concert hail, Sacred Spaces, in addition to creating a handsome apartment, which they already have rented in the rear. The building now has a new roof and an updated infrastructure of wiring, heat, and air conditioning. Ironically too, the origins of the building as a Presbyterian church some 125 years ago now have come full circle, as the Ayalas presently are leasing the building for Sunday worship to the newly- formed Christ Presbyterian Church. 

As Sacred Spaces, the church edifice already has experienced a “revival” of sorts, which the Ayalas plan to continue as the 1899-1900 Moller organ—the oldest in its original site in Danville (and among the oldest Mollers anywhere)— is restored. It promises to resound with other instruments and professional musicians in a series of periodic evening concerts, which were inaugurated the Friday after Thanksgiving just past.