Oak Cliff United Methodist Church, August 2021

A video blogger who documents “abandoned” places recently featured Oak Cliff United Methodist Church, a historic landmark built in 1914.

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The City of Dallas designated the building, on East Jefferson at Marsalis, a historic landmark in 2004. It also became a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1999. The church closed in 2015.

The Dallas landmark designation should mean that the building can’t be torn down or changed in appearance without approval from the Landmark Commission.

Murray Miller, director of Dallas’ Office of Historic Preservation, says the ordinance contains “provision for future development on the site,” which could occur while safeguarding the buildings.

He explained: “Any exterior changes to a landmark building would still require a certificate of appropriateness, and the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties would be used in the absence of specific preservation criteria that would typically be found in historic overlay ordinances.

On July 10, a YouTube channel, Abandoned Dallas, posted video shot inside the church, showing what blogger Adrian Ledezma describes as “homeless encampments,” evidence of drug and alcohol use, a roof leak and vandalism.

Ledezma illegally trespasses to take some of the video that appears on Abandoned Dallas, but he says he’s never been arrested in six years of documenting decaying places.

While the video shows neglect to the interior of the building, the Office of Historic Preservation’s scope is limited to the exterior. Any Dallas resident could request an investigation into whether a property is being demolished by neglect, Miller says.

A real estate company, The Nayeb Group, purchased the property in January. They haven’t respond to phone messages left in July and August.

The group’s investment portfolio includes other historic properties, including The Principal apartments, which was the historic Davy Crockett School in East Dallas, and the Downtown building that housed Doug’s Gym for 55 years.

Watch the Abandoned Dallas footage of Oak Cliff United Methodist Church below. The sanctuary is shown in the first minute and again at the 10-minute mark.