Catholic Donates Land to Baptist Foundation
A 60-acre parcel of undeveloped land in the Santa Clarita Valley has been given to a Southern Baptist foundation in Orange County by a Catholic donor, it was announced today.
“It just fell into our laps,” said the Rev. Gerald W. Squyres, president of the Orange County Southern Baptist Foundation, which assists new congregations with rental money until they acquire permanent facilities.
The agent for the anonymous Northern California donor recently had been counseled about some personal matters by the Rev. Michael Carlisle of Aliso Viejo in Orange County. The agent put the donor in contact with the church.
Squyres said the vacant site, partly on hilly land and not reachable by road, is located in the Pinetree neighborhood of Canyon Country, about a mile west of the Antelope Valley Freeway.
The anonymous donor from Northern California, who was eager to donate the land before the end of 1991, had the property appraised at $6 million, Squyres said.
“Our first desire will be to sell it outright, but we could trade for land, preferably in Orange County,” Squyres said. The pastor said that Orange County now has 84 Southern Baptist congregations but only 49 have their own facilities.
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