Arlington Hts. church to expand to Barrington museum site

An Arlington Heights church in desperate need of expansion is preparing to bring new life to the former JFK Health World building in Barrington.

The Orchard Evangelical Free Church's Senior Pastor Colin Smith, who hails from the United Kingdom, has joked that as so many churches in Europe are being turned into museums, he's looking forward to turning a museum into a church, church spokeswoman Ruth Guillaume said.

JFK Health World was a children's museum filled with interactive exhibits on health and safety. It opened in 1995 in the former Technical Publishing Co. building at 1301 S. Grove Ave. in Barrington and closed in June 2006.

The more than 50-year-old church, formerly known as the Arlington Heights Evangelical Free Church and now based at 1330 N. Douglas Ave. in Arlington Heights, is planning to purchase both the building that housed the museum and its adjoining office building from Health World.

Barrington officials have approved the church's plans for the site and a closing on the sale is expected within the month, Guillaume said.

The congregation will keep its Arlington Heights house of worship, with the Barrington location becoming its eventual second home. Smith will alternate between the two locations on Sundays, with his sermons broadcast to the other location.

Barrington Village Manager Jeff Lawler said the church's use of the building will exempt it from property taxes, but eliminating a building vacancy was seen as a bigger benefit. The influx of parishioners to the church could potentially generate activity and revenue for businesses in the village, he added.

While the exterior of the building won't change, extensive renovation of the interior will begin shortly after the closing and is expected to be done in the fall of 2010. The church continues to raise funds for the building purchase and renovation.

Guillaume said the church was already bursting at the seams a few years ago, having to divide its congregation among seven different services.

The initial idea was to expand the current site, but church officials realized this would be difficult without raising objections from surrounding residents, Guillaume said.

And so the search began for a second site, one that would be of an appropriate size and location for its own future congregation.

While current church members are accustomed to a more traditional type of worship sanctuary, administrators are comfortable that the second site will be acceptable to its members.

"The space at the new location will be much more multipurpose," Guillaume said.

While much of what remains of Health World's displays will go to new homes, the church will retain the Safety Town exhibit for the children of the congregation.

The entire congregation will come together for a service in the gym of Hersey High School in Arlington Heights at 9:30 a.m. Sunday to officially begin this next stage in the church's history.

After the main sanctuary building was damaged by arson in 1980, the Hersey gym became the congregation's home for three years as repairs were made.

Since then, Hersey has remained a place to which the church has occasionally returned to ceremonially mark the start of a new chapter.