Fourteen congregations statewide will receive more than $2.4 million to help fund church building improvements in the latest round of grants from the Indiana Landmarks Sacred Places Indiana Fund.
The statewide preservation organization and Philadelphia-based Partners for Sacred Places founded Sacred Places Indiana in 2015 with funding from Lilly Endowment. In 2023, the endowment provided a $10 million gift to create a more robust matching grant program over the next three years.
The latest grant round will help fund the following projects:
- Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne: $66,350 to replace the roof membrane and tuckpoint the 1929 church’s bell tower and chimney.
- Centerville Christian Church: $185,000 to complete repairs to the 1878 church’s steeple and spire.
- Diocese of Gary: $400,000 to tuckpoint masonry on all elevations of the 1950 Cathedral of the Holy Angels.
- First Baptist Church in Columbus: $80,000 for roof replacement and window seal repairs at the 1965 National Historic Landmark church.
- Friends of Town Clock Church in New Albany: $100,000 to update the wheelchair lift at the 1852 Second Baptist Church and install doors that are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
- Our Lady of Hungary in South Bend: $100,000 to modernize heating and cooling systems and repair the radiator heat system at the 1949 church, which will help ensure preservation of historic sanctuary murals.
- Phillips Temple CME Church in Indianapolis: $300,000 to replace the roof on the 1928 church.
- St. Athanasius Byzantine Catholic Church in Indianapolis: $90,000 for critical upgrades to heating and cooling, electrical, and life safety systems at the 1894 church.
- St. Francis Xavier Cathedral, Vincennes: $100,000 to restore masonry at the 1826 basilica and adjacent historic library.
- St. Paul Lutheran Church in Olean: $100,000 to repair masonry on the bell tower and sanctuary of the 1921 church.
- St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Evansville: $285,000 for replacement of the 1928 church’s slate roof.
- St. Thomas More Academy in South Bend: $125,000 to install heating and cooling systems in the 1883 St. Hedwig Church.
- Valparaiso University: $300,000 to repair the slab floor and foundation in the sanctuary of the 1959 Chapel of the Resurrection.
- Woodruff Place Baptist Church in Indianapolis: $200,000 to replace the roof membrane, repair masonry, and restore windows at the 1926 church.
The Indiana Landmarks Sacred Places Indiana Fund awards matching grants in a competitive process. The organization says selected congregations must be committed to good stewardship of their historic structures and have demonstrated signs of organizational health including established clergy and lay leadership, clearly defined project goals, stable or growing membership, community engagement, and financial strength and stability.
Congregations should be ready to undertake and complete both a capital campaign and construction project within the next two years.