There’s a white stucco building with a striking, arched dome that doesn’t appear to belong in the middle of the modest homes on Clay Avenue.

Inside what was once the First German Baptist Church, it looks as though an entire congregation abandoned the building in the middle of a service, shut the doors and never returned.

Dusty Christian songbooks still are stacked neatly under a podium near the pulpit. A browned and tattered telephone bill for $3.57 lies on a desk in an office in the back. Children’s activity books sit on tables behind the pews.

“Look at that choir loft,” said 77-year-old Waco substitute teacher Al Steele. “It’s the eeriest feeling. You can almost hear the Damen and Herren (ladies and gentlemen) singing in German.”

The city tagged this building at 901 Clay Ave. for demolition two years ago, five years after it had tagged it as repairable. But the money for repairs just wasn’t there, and neither was the desire.

Steele has long marveled at what he thinks is the building’s German architecture. He said he wants to get a group together to save the odd yet fascinating old church.

But his interest might be too little, too late.

Earlier this week, the city filed suit against the Clay Street Christian Church, asking its pastor, 70-year-old Kent Graves, to demolish the structure.

Now a chunk of the wooden floor has caved in, making simply walking through the front door treacherous.

Forty-five-ounce beer bottles lie among the children’s books. Religious pictures from the walls, wiring and piping have been ripped from the walls.

On a rainy day, a constant flow of water drips from the roof to the corroded floor and onto the soggy carpet.

The smell is that of rotting wood and mildew — like an old basement that has been locked for years.

LaDelle Stobbe, 79, who once attended the German Baptist church with her husband, Herbert, has an anniversary book from the church, which sheds a little light on its history.

The Waco German Baptists started it in 1890 as a mission of the First Baptist Church. It was organized by Baylor University’s chancellor at the time, Rufus C. Burleson, Stobbe’s anniversary book states.

In 1907, its membership was 49. In 1917, the church was built, although the book doesn’t reveal who designed or built it.

Sermons were in German until around World War II. After that, the building changed hands to various churches until the early 2000s, Graves said.

Graves, who used the building about eight years ago for his church’s vacation bible school and after-school activities, now can’t give the church away.

He is, after all, responsible for either repairing the building or the cost of demolition.

As the church’s owner, he’s also liable if anyone hurts themselves in the dilapidated structure.

Chris Randazzo, a field supervisor with the city’s inspection services, said repair could easily run hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on whether asbestos abatement is needed.

For Steele to raise money to repair the church, which has now been deemed irreparable, Graves needs to sign the deed for the building over to him.

Steele would need to hire a structural engineer to survey the building, have it tested for asbestos, and then hire an architect to submit plans for the repair to the city.

Randazzo has seen Steele’s passion in others plenty of times before. Unfortunately, money gets in the way.

“I mean, it has happened,” Randazzo said. “Look at the old Waco High building. It just takes the right person, who has enough money, to express interest.”

The former downtown high school has been converted into low-income loft apartments.

Graves is happy to have someone take the building off his hands.

“Every time we would start to clean it up, vandals would break in and wreck the place,” Graves said.

Steele’s plan is to shop the idea of undertaking the project to local churches.

“We have to repair this building,” he said. “For our heritage. It’s part of where we came from.”

The idea of a German Baptist church in Central Texas, or anywhere, for that matter, is rare, he said.

“We have files on primitive Baptists and Southern Baptists, but nothing on German Baptists,” said Michael Toon, librarian of the Texas Collection at Baylor University.

Randazzo said, as sad is it is to wipe out such unique old buildings, it’s just too costly to keep them around. Not to mention, they are a threat to health and safety.

But Steele’s view of the old, mysterious church is more romantic. He has faith.

“It’s up to the good Lord above,” he said.

equinn@wacotrib.com

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