After opening in 1994, The Church became a haven for the misfits, the weirdos, the alternative crowd and lovers of the goth aesthetic. The Church and its iconic counterpart Lizard Lounge, which shared a space, fell victim to COVID-related closures back in 2020.
The spirit of The Church lives on through pop-up nights and series at Dallas club It’ll Do, but frequenters of its original 2424 Swiss Ave. location hold onto the memories of The Church’s heyday.
In 2010, Dark Sanctuary director Timothy Stevens moved from Amarillo to Denton to pursue filmmaking. On nights and weekends, Stevens found solace at The Church and within its community.
“Going to The Church was this eye-opening experience,” Stevens says. “Not only were there people like me, in regards to aesthetic, tastes, music, fashion and literature, but there's a whole bunch of them. And if anything, there's this whole world of it. For everybody that went to The Church, it really changed the course of their lives, because you meet so many people with so many different experiences."
Those experiences inspired Stevens to document the memories of those memorable club nights.
"Making this film I've come into contact with these titans of gothic industrial music," he says. "I just kept looking at my crew making the film, I was like, ‘Is this real life? Like, are we really talking to these people?’ It's been this kind of whirlwind that I got sucked into.”
Dark Sanctuary features anecdotes from Paul Oakenfold, Dita Von Teese and other names who have performed at The Church. Owner Don Nedler also chronicles the space’s history and evolution.
Over the years, The Church lived many lives, and survived thanks to the support of its community. Even before its May 2020 closing, Medler worked his hardest to keep the space thriving in the midst of COVID.
“I remember seeing a post that Don Nedler made, saying that they had held on as long as they could — I think for three or more months — where he was essentially paying the rent, utilities, upkeep and everything, including his employees for three months out of his own pocket," Stevens says. "And he just couldn't do it anymore.”
The Church lives on as a weekly series, plus occasional pop-up events at It’ll Do, but for Stevens, it was important to preserve the history of its flagship location. Especially after more ill fortune struck the space.
From Brothel to Church
“Austin Hayes, who ended up being a producer on the film, sent me a text. He's like, ‘Dude, someone needs to make a documentary about The Church.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, that's good. Yeah, someone should do that,’" he says. "I had another film I was working on, and I was like, ‘I hope someone does that.’ And come around the beginning of 2021, I think there was a hard freeze and a pipe burst within that location. And it decimated the entire interior. It became apparent to me that this was a landmark, and it was fragile, and it could disappear almost entirely. “In the documentary, Stevens also explores the building’s rich history. He found that the building dates back to the 1880s, and served as a trolley car repair station, a furniture store and a dinner theater called Grand Central Palace. He also dived deep into some of the rumors that have surrounded the space.
“In between, there are these blank spots where there are a lot of rumors that The Church might have been a brothel at one point,” Stevens says. “Or that it could have had some speakeasies in it. All these things are definitely small, but unverified. We explored the fact in the film that The Church might be haunted, and we may have actually captured some evidence of that while we were filming the movie. So that's something to look into. People have definitely had some pretty frightening experiences there over the years.”
Stevens captures The Church as more than just a hangout for the goth community. The space has been, and continues to be, a home for those who defy the norms of society and seek beauty within.
“The Church as an institution is so much more like a church than most churches,” says Stevens. “There's no judgment, there's no prejudice, there are open arms, there's a community of people that help you when you're down. There are people that have had medical bills that The Church community has paid for, because they care about them so much. It can be these people they see maybe once a month sometimes, or maybe they only see them on Sundays, but they’ve become like a little part of their family. People should look at this as a model of how to treat each other.”
Dark Sanctuary: The Story of The Church will screen at the Dallas International Film Festival, at 10 p.m., April 28, at the Violet Crown, 3699 McKinney Ave. Tickets are available for purchase.
