Reaching out Minister brings light — and coffee and paninis — to New Hope City Center
The Rev. Tom Bellhy, pastor of New Hope Church, is opening New Hope City Center on North Main Street in Washington.
New Hope City Center is a faith-based business designed as a gathering spot for groups and individuals in Washington.
The Rev. Tom Bellhy, pastor of New Hope Church, and his wife Jan, in background, are opening New Hope City Center on North Main Street in Washington.
Rev. Tom Bellhy has expanded his ministry to downtown Washington – and to sandwiches, bagels, paninis and coffee.
“We want this to be a light here,” Bellhy said last week, as he prepared New Hope City Center for launch at 47 N. Main St. He is a Presbyterian minister, pastor of New Hope Church in the Wolfdale section of Canton Township, who is renovating the former Watermark Gallery into a combination diner/coffee house/counseling center/meeting room/spot to chill out.
And listen to live music Friday nights.
“This will be an outreach of our church,” said the executive director of this nonprofit endeavor. “You can come into an environment that’s nice and nice looking, with good food and coffee, where you are comfortable.”
The pastor, father of the basketball Bellhys of W&J, will have a grand opening Friday starting at 6 a.m. and running through the coffee house that ends at 10 p.m. Hours otherwise will be 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday, covering breakfast and lunch. A coffee house, with music, will be from 7 to 10 p.m. every Friday.
Harmony House Cafe, with seating for 50, will be the entertainment focal point of New Hope City Center. Food and coffee drinks – espressos, cappuccinos, lattes and straight-up java – will be served there along with the sweet sounds.
“All at a reasonable price,” Bellhy said, smiling.
But there is room for much more in an 8,000-square-foot, two-story structure owned by Mark Logston.
The cafe is partitioned from an area featuring offices, meeting rooms and lots of storage space. There are small meeting rooms for private sessions, and a larger room for Christian counseling, led by staff from Christian Counseling of Western Pennsylvania. That space will be available for rent to other organizations and groups.
“We will do adult tutoring,” said Bellhy, of Hickory. “A lot of times, people struggle to get jobs because they can’t read or write.”
Space downstairs is available for social events.
Bellhy, who has served at New Hope Church for eight years, is opening the center as an extension of his work. But he also has a keen civic pride. He was raised in Washington, the son of a former police chief also named Tom.
“I have a special place in my heart for the city. It was a place out of Norman Rockwell when I grew up,” said Pastor Tom, a 1974 Wash High graduate. “The town has been bombarded with drugs and alcoholism. When you talk to people about the addiction they have, they need to know they need to have hope.
“I’m looking at this as a point of growth, part of doing something for the city.”
Although he officially is a Presbyterian pastor, Bellhy said, “I like to tell people I’m a Christian pastor. I want to break down barriers between denominations.”
To that end, he said people from his church and other churches from various denominations have assisted with renovations to the former art gallery – which, in a previous life, was a G.C. Murphy department store.
“They came in to help because they like what we are doing here,” said Bellhy, who also works closely with Washington City Mission.
The work was formidable, which included repainting, ripping down a wall, redesigning and purchasing hardware. Bellhy said he purchased equipment from a restaurant that closed in Houston. Logston, owner of the onetime gallery, donated decorative faux plants that had been left over.
Bellhy, a former football player and coach, was the lead tackler of the project. “I was here night and day for four months,” he said, unfazed by the labor. He built the cafe’s cedar counter.
It is a spiffy cafe, chairs and tables neatly arranged, walls painted in pleasant colors and adorned with inspirational messages. Bellhy lauded daughter Beka and wife Jan for their design work. Beka, the top scorer on the W&J women’s team this past season, will graduate May 21 with a degree in art.
Her four siblings also have helped at the center. And they, too, have distinguished themselves on the court – three in basketball, one in volleyball.
Rachel returned from injury this past season to start for W&J, where Zach scored more than 1,500 points for the men’s squad from 2009-13. Nate also topped 1,000 points as a collegian, more than 800 of them in two years at W&J. He played at Seton Hill University as a freshman and California University of Pennsylvania as a senior this past winter.
Tina plays volleyball at Cal U., where she is a rising sophomore.
A little work still had to be done during the middle of last week, but New Hope City Center is essentially ready to rock. It will do so, initially, with an unpaid staff.
“It’s an all-volunteer army,” Bellhy said. “I’m asking people to help me for two months, and we’ll see how the economics develop. Then I will start to hire people.”
His objective is to make the center pay off for employees, the local community and the community of God.