Pastor Cliff Hudson, left, and Patti Kuhns, director of the fine arts program of First Cumberland Presbyterian Church, stand behind the jail bars in the "dungeon" of the church on Second Street in Cleveland, Tenn. The church was once the Bradley County Jail.CLEVELAND, Tenn.-If walls could talk, some of them at First Cumberland Presbyterian Church might begin the conversation with their most recent memories - the successful first year of the Fine Arts Academy, with students exploring the piano keyboard and music.
The academy, however, is housed within the walls of what decades ago was the Bradley County Jail, now owned by the church.
Many churches have fine arts academies, conceded Patti Kuhns, director of First Cumberland's program. But what other church can say that its arts students pass through the same doors once frequented by the county's most troublesome characters?
"You would be surprised at the number of people who come to see me for the first time who are hesitant because they were here once in another role," minister Cliff Hudson said.
The academy occupies part of the old building once used for jail office space and the radio dispatcher. Upstairs, Hudson's study is in what once was the women's detention area. There are holes in the wall behind his work table, reminders of the iron bars that once crossed the room and that church members worked so laboriously to remove a decade ago.
In the basement, the old cell blocks still stand in moldy silence.
It wasn't always this way.
The church traces its origin to a July 16, 1837, organizational meeting at what legend says was a log county courthouse. It has had the same address, on the corner of Church and Second streets, since 1857.
For most of that history, the county jail was next door. But the county has moved the jail twice since the 1970s.
The church bought the empty old jail more than a decade ago, and the space was rented for several years. Then the growing church needed space for its arts academy.
"A fine arts academy is a perfect outreach to the community," Kuhns said. "How many gifted kids are out there but we will never know about them because they have no place to learn?"
Now that the old jail is fully part of the church, members have another consideration. The church bought the parking lot behind it recently from the city and at last owns the entire block. Now officials are planning what will happen in that space.
Buying the parking lot and incorporating the old jail into its own historic structure are just indications of the church's intention to stay downtown, Hudson said.
Kuhns said she remembers a well-dressed elderly gentleman coming into the academy a few months ago. He seemed surprised to learn he was not at the county jail, she said.
"I gave him directions to the justice center. He apologized. He was very polite," she said.