The caller asked the Rev. Brian Cash, pastor of East Mt. Zion Baptist Church if he was sitting down.
“Do I need to sit down?” he responded. “I knew immediately the long wait was over.”
It was May and Cash was hoping to hear whether the Cleveland Restoration Society had received a $750,000 federal grant for the historic church on Euclid Avenue to make roof and other critical repairs. The National Park Service grant committee had given high marks to the project, which is a partnership between the church and CRS. There had been months of delays in knowing whether the nonprofit had received the grant with no explanation.
Now, CRS President Kathleen Crowther was on the phone with word that the grant had been approved.
Cash went into the church’s banquet hall, where members were holding a community meal.
“I shouted: “We got it! We got it!” he said. “There was just jubilation and celebration. We had been praying on it, and it had been held up for such a long time.”
Last week, CRS received the contract that makes the grant official. (Neither CRS nor the church could say anything publicly until the contract arrived, said Anne Doten, CRS’ director of development.) Awardees were initially supposed to have been notified in March.
Doten remembers the months of waiting.
“Given the broader climate of federal cuts, we feared the program might be suspended altogether,” Doten said, referring to the Trump administration’s policy of reviewing federal funding that Congress had already approved.
She also remembers learning the money had been awarded.
“We were deeply relieved and gratified,” she said.
A part of the effort to preserve Cleveland’s historic Black churches
The $750,000 comes from the African American Civil Rights grant program, which is part of NPS’ Historic Preservation Fund. The money will cover several things in dire need of fixing, including the roof and gutter systems and structural roof beams. The grant will also cover masonry repairs and protective measures for the stained glass windows. The grant will support the church’s $1.5 million capital improvement project. East Mt. Zion had raised about half of the money and was counting on the grant covering the rest.
The partnership between the church and the restoration society is part of the nonprofit’s effort to preserve Cleveland’s historic Black churches. CRS is laying the groundwork to start a $5 million fund to cover repair and preservation projects at these churches. Landing grants, such as the one East Mt. Zion received, is often difficult. At the same time, many historic Black churches are looking at major repair and restoration projects costing hundreds of thousands of dollars and more. Their congregations often aren’t wealthy enough to pay for these projects without outside help. The $1.5 million project at Mt. Zion, built in 1908, is just one of several that must be done. Fixing the deteriorating green stone that covers the church could cost more than $7 million, Cash said.
Repairing and restoring historic Black churches such as East Mt. Zion is important because of their architecture, the role they have played in Cleveland’s civil rights history and their continuing outreach to the community, ranging from food pantries to educational programs, Doten said. In 1955, East Mt. Zion became the first Black congregation to buy a church on Euclid Avenue, once known as Millionaires’ Row. Its community outreach includes Lifeline Ministry, which distributes food, clothing and other essentials throughout the community.
Anxiety mounted among many East Mt. Zion members as each month passed without word as to whether the church had landed the NPS grant. While waiting was frustrating, Cash never doubted the grant would come through.
“I didn’t have any fear at all,” he said. “I’ve seen too much in the journey of the last five years [as pastor] that I knew God was not going to desert us.”
