This once was a church slated for demolition, but the crescent and star now above the main door tell a story of rescue from the wrecking ball.
The former Methodist church in Utica, New York, was converted to a mosque and community center by Bosnian Muslim immigrants. They purchased the abandoned building from the city in 2008, and have been renovating it ever since.
The brick exterior of the church — which was built nearly 200 years ago — has been covered with gray stucco and its steeple converted into a minaret. The Bosnian Islamic Association Mosque, as it is now called, has an expansive prayer room decorated with gold-and-red carpet. The alcove that once held the church choir is now a women’s prayer space.
The renovation is typical of what is happening all over Utica, a town of about 63,000 in the Mohawk River Valley of central New York that was losing population for decades as industrial jobs disappeared. In recent years, more immigrants began moving in. Now immigrants make up one-tenth of Utica’s population, according to the New York Times, with Bosnians accounting for the majority of the immigrants. The newcomers are revitalizing the economy with small service and manufacturing companies.
Utica has received national attention for welcoming the new mosque, which serves about 450 Muslim families. The mayor of Utica, David Roefaro, said, “[The Bosnians] have done just a wonderful job. They have really taken something that used to be a gem back in the 1800s and made it a gem again. It sparkles here in the city of Utica, and I'm glad to have them.”
See a photo gallery of the mosque renovations on the Utica Observer-Dispatch website.
Photo gallery: “Mosques in America: A Blending of Cultures”