Newspaper Article

Mansion may be sold for tax debt
By Bill Alnor
Delaware County Daily Times July 22, 1986

BETHEL - The mansion owned by the Rev. Frederick Drummond may be sold in a judicial sale in September due to a $15,000 outstanding tax bill, the Daily Times has learned.

Tax records on file at the Delaware County Courthouse reveal that Drummond and his wife Lorraine have not paid taxes on their Buena Vista Mansion on Foulk Road, Bethel Township, since 1982.

Courthouse records show that the controversial minister owes township, school and county taxes of about $3,600 for each of the past four years, including 1986 taxes which are past due.

A courthouse source said that normally means the property will be listed for judicial sale in September if the back taxes are not paid. A listing of the properties for sale will not be published until August, the spokeswoman said.

The spokeswoman added that if the individual pays the back taxes up to the time of the sale, the sale will be stopped.

Drummond, the pastor of the Church of Our Saviour in Concordville, did not return a phone call inquiring about the taxes.

But earlier this year Drummond listed the lavish mansion on 11 acres of wooded land for sale at an asking price of $495,000.

The Drummonds purchased the property in late 1981 for about $225,000, court records reveal.

The Church of Our Saviour, located at 700 Baltimore Pike, Concordville, has also been facing financial difficulties as of late.

Earlier this year the Internal Revenue Service filed two tax liens against the church totaling about $14,000. Allegedly the church did not pay federal withholding taxes on behalf of church employees. The liens were removed when the church paid the taxes.

That was followed by both the state and township citing the church for numerous fire and safety violations at the church campus.

If the corrections are made, it will cost the church thousands of dollars. The church has appealed the state's ruling.

Earlier this year the church also lost a battle to continue to hold its Sunday worship services at the Valley Forge Music Fair. The Music Fair evicted the church through an escape clause in its two-year lease.

But prior to the eviction the church spent $10,500 in rental. Fees, $63,000 in advertising expenses, and $77,000 in new equipment and materials related to the move, according to a court document.

Recently the church-sponsored "Triumphant" radio and television programs went off the air for the first time in two years.

Drummond had previously said that unless the viewers began to contribute generously to the program's support it would be forced off the air. He had also said the God was telling him that one of the viewers was meant to give $100,000 to the program.