In today's local paper it was reported that the city of Charleston is going to spend $1.4 million to buy a historic East Bay mansion -- the Josiah Smith Tennent House.   

The current owners of the mansion are a nonprofit group, Elpis Inc., that have received more than $1 million in grants from the city to renovate the building as a community center.  And in 2003 they also took out a $1.73 million mortage to aid in the renovation project.

But it seems that they have defaulted on their loan, and now the city will have to buy it back form the bank.  It seems such a shame since they gave the property to Elpis Inc. in 1993.  At that time there were high hopes for the mansion to serve as a community center for the East Side neighborhood.

Elpis, an affiliate of the Rev. Dallas Wilson's Agape Ministries, outfitted part of the building used the building for several very respectable community needs.  It was used as a dental clinic, a day care center (which still operates there), and also housed other Agape-affiliated nonprofit groups in the building.

The yard was also used as a tribute to the community.  The small front yard of the building, at East Bay and Drake streets, became the Philip Simmons Children's Garden, honoring our local master blacksmith.

Unfortunately, several of the community services planned for the building never got off of the ground, and the dental clinic sits empty today.

"There's no sense that there was missing money or anything like that," said Mayor Joe Riley. "It was just an ambitious development plan that they could not pull off."  I don't know that I fully believe that, but time will tell.

After their purchase, the city hopes to reopen the dental clinic, and hopes to also lease two floors of the property to nonprofit groups, according to the mayor.  They have also agreed to lease to first floor of the property back to Elpis Inc. for $1 so that they can continue to run the day care center.

** photo taken from The Post and Courier