Iola’s Ward Chapel AME Church, which closed its doors for good last summer, has been sold.
Ben Jett, an over-the-road truck driver, purchased the facility, and plans to use it as his residence
Jett has driven a truck for the past 20-plus years, and served in the Army before that. And as the son of another Army veteran, Jett has never really had a place to set down roots.
“I’ve basically been on the move my entire life,” Jett, 47, told the Register in a telephone interview.
And now, he’s looking to retire from trucking.
In his search for a place to buy, Jett had some simple, yet iron-clad requirements.
He preferred a nice, quiet town, and wherever he lived, needed to have a wide-open floor plan.
“I’ve basically been living in a 9-by-9 compartment for the past 20 years,” Jett said. “And I didn’t want to live in a house filled with 9-by-9 compartments.”
Jett scoured real estate listings across the country, and found one for Ward Chapel.
He did some investigation, primarily dealing with the building’s condition, and Iola’s zoning laws.
“You don’t want to have any surprises,” he explained. “I checked with the city, and there’s actually very little I’ll have to do with the place to get it ready.”
When both met his criteria — the facility is zoned residential — he made an offer to the Ward Chapel AME Conference’s 5th District, which owned the building.
The offer was accepted.
Jett hopes to move in over summer, although he notes patience is a virtue.
That’s because shipping his belongings, currently housed in a storage facility in Arizona, will be significantly cheaper after the summer months.
He lauded the church’s caretakers, who have kept the building in tip-top shape since it was built in 1914.
