The Conservancy’s Sacred Sites Committee has pledged 17 grants totaling $267,000 to religious institutions from Brooklyn to Oneida in Central New York. These grants will help restore roofs, towers, masonry, and stained glass windows.
Grantee St. Peter’s Church is one of NYC’s youngest landmarks. Designed by Hugh Stubbins with Edward Larrabee Barnes, this Lutheran church was completed in 1977 as part of the commercial redevelopment of this East Midtown Manhattan block, including the iconic, 59-story former Citicorp tower, which rises above the church on four “super” columns. A $35,000 grant will help restore leaking skylights, roof drainage, and granite cladding.
Chronic roof leaks are also the focus of three other NYC grants: $35,000 to the 1795 St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery, for a new copper roof drainage system, and $25,000 each for slate roof restoration to two Romanesque landmarks, the 1884 Metropolitan Baptist Church in Harlem, and the 1887 Highbridge Community Church in the Bronx. A fifth NYC grant was awarded to the 1913 Beth Shalom v’Emeth Reform Temple in Prospect Park South, Brooklyn, for the restoration of monumental figural stained glass windows.
Twelve additional grants ranging from $1,000 to $25,000 were awarded to historic churches upstate, including three for architectural and engineering services, and nine for masonry, roof, and stained glass restoration. Four of these were first-time applicants to the Conservancy’s Sacred Sites grant program.
Together, these 17 grantee institutions help more than 176,000 community members beyond their congregations, serving as Covid 19 testing and vaccination sites, and continuing to operate preschools and food pantries to assist communities experiencing financial insecurity during the pandemic.
The Sacred Sites program has two grant rounds annually. Our next application deadline is June 1st, with those grants awarded in October. Active historic religious institutions located in New York State are eligible to apply. For more information contact the Conservancy at 212-995-5260.
