Old Churches getting updates from local entrepreneurs

When the owners of Taft’s Ale House first toured St. Paul’s German Evangelical Church in 2011, they could not imagine opening a gastropub in the space. “My ‘my, oh, my’ moment was when I first saw the building because it was so bad,” said David Williams, one of Taft’s managing partners. “The roof had caved in. The floors had caved in.” The historic St. Paul’s sat empty at 1429 Race St. in Over-the-Rhine for nearly 40 years, a fate shared by many other historic churches in Cincinnati.