Couples purchase former Cliffside church building

Plans include community center

The Daily Courier, Dec. 23, 2016
From Staff Reports

Exterior of old church building — The 22,000-square-feet former Cliffside Baptist Church building has been purchased, and owners have plans for developing a community center.

FOREST CITY—After standing empty and many years of neglect, the former Cliffside Baptist Church was recently acquired by Jason and Amy Drum and Johnny and Karin White, who intend to give the property a new lease on life.

They propose to restore the church to its former magnificence and to create an entity that will inject new spirit and serve as an anchor in the Cliffside community. The main objective is to preserve the church infrastructure and its heritage and to honor the Haynes Mill workers who built the church, grew up in the church and worshipped there for 60 years.

Karin White and Amy Drum — Business owners Karin White (left) and Amy Drum are investing in the former Cliffside church building along with their husbands, Johnny White and Jason Drum.
*Photo Jean Gordon/Daily Courier*

With a seating capacity of 1,000 and a square footage of 22,000 feet once completed, the church lends itself well to become a hosting venue for various meetings and events.

“We hope to turn it into a venue of some type, including a Christian dinner theater,” said Johnny White.

“It is a 22,000 square foot building and there are lots of opportunities there,” he said.

Over the next few months, the goal is to organize a cleanup effort with help from the community and at the same time, start working on planning support for renovation and restoration so that the church once more may be a focal point at the heart of the Cliffside community.

Johnny stands with two renovation workers. — Johnny White (center) works at the renovation site for the relocation of Dutch Broad Cafe in Forest City on Thursday morning.
*Photo Austin Bailey/Daily Courier*

“We are looking at everything from an arts center to a community center. It will be community driven,” White said.

He also said “we wanted to do something for the community.”

The Whites are also owners of Dutch Broad Cafe and Davis Donuts in Forest City and are in the process of renovating the donut shop building for the relocation of Dutch Broad Cafe from its former Spindale location. They also own the cafe at the Broad River Greenway.

Amy Drum, of Cliffside, and her husband own the former bank building on Main Street in Cliffside where she maintains offices for her art work.

She creates and paints barn art across the county.

Reprinted with permission from The Daily Courier. Copyright owned by The Daily Courier.