St. Paul?s Church Buys Jerry?s Restaurant

Janice F. Bartholomew of Prairie Grove sold Jerry’s Restaurant at 241 College Ave. in Fayetteville to St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on July 13 for about $350,000, according to Washington County records. The property appraised earlier this year for $275,950.

The sale includes the 2,256-SF restaurant, which was built in 1945, and the surrounding 13,506-SF parking lot on the southwest corner of Dickson Street and College Avenue, one of the city’s busiest intersections and a gateway to its entertainment district.

Sales had been declining at the restaurant, which has been a Fayetteville landmark for decades. According to city tax records, in 2003, Jerry’s brought in $180,200, down 11.2 percent from $202,900 in 2002 and down 15.3 percent from $212,800 in 2001.

Jerry and Doris Lindsay sold the restaurant to Janice Bartholomew and Dorise Chappell in 1998 for $200,000.

The Lindsays bought the restaurant in 1991, for $200,000 from Marion Cearley.

St. Paul’s may allow the restaurant to reopen as a training facility for homeless people, but no decision had been made as of Aug. 12.

St. Paul’s founded Fayetteville’s Seven Hills Homeless Shelter.