Just about every time Peggie Brown enters the sanctuary at Shiloh Baptist Church in Central, she gazes up at the immense stained glass dome and admires it. She’s been doing this for the 60 years she has been a member.

One Sunday about three years ago, Brown arrived at the church on Scovill Avenue and East 55th Street and gasped in horror. Members told her stained glass and plaster had fallen from the dome in the building constructed in the early 1900s. A “Please Do Not Sit Here” sign was in the pew where she once sat.

“Shiloh is known for its dome and it is so beautiful,” she said, adding that many in the church initially worried about how the congregation would come up with enough money to restore it. “It was not a good feeling.”

How was a congregation with fewer than 100 members in a neighborhood in which the typical family income is under $24,000 going to afford a project that could run about $200,000? 

Working with the Cleveland Restoration Society (CRS), Shiloh was able to secure grants to pay for the project. Shiloh’s case isn’t unique. It’s a Black church in Cleveland in an architecturally and historically significant building in need of major repairs. 

Finding the money to make expensive repairs is challenging for many of these congregations. The racial wealth gap means that they typically have fewer resources than the white congregations who constructed these buildings. As fewer Americans regularly attend church, many of these Black congregations in these structures are considerably smaller than they were decades ago when they purchased their buildings. Even grants are out of reach for some of these churches because they can’t meet the funding conditions, such as those requiring churches to pay upfront for major improvements and then be reimbursed.

This is why CRS is laying the groundwork to create a fund to pay for these projects as part of its Cleveland’s Historic Black Church Initiative. It will include a $5 million fundraising campaign. The kickoff date hasn’t yet been set, but the nonprofit recently received a $300,000 grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s  Preserving Black Churches Fund to help set up the infrastructure needed to raise millions of dollars.

“By creating a fund, we are helping to preserve these real cultural gems of Cleveland,” said Margaret Lann, CRS’ director of preservation services and publications.

Cleveland’s historic Black church buildings: ‘Absolutely beautiful, but expensive’

The cost of repairs and restoration is often exorbitant. Most of the buildings that could benefit were constructed in the late 1800s and early 20th century, a time of massive wealth in Cleveland, which was often reflected in the materials and level of craftsmanship used, said CRS’ Director of Development Anne Doten. A few hundred thousand dollars per project or more isn’t uncommon. Buildings that have stood for more than a century usually have at least a few costly projects to address. 

Public and private grants and congregation-based fundraising campaigns often aren’t enough to cover the cost of the work, she said. This means that struggling, but determined, congregations such as Shiloh could benefit from the fund and also those with more members and resources. East Mt. Zion Baptist Church and Liberty Hill Baptist Church, both on Euclid Avenue in Fairfax, have raised $200,000 to $300,000-plus for capital improvements, but it’s not enough to cover all the work that needs to be done. 

“Many of these Black churches are in buildings that are just absolutely beautiful, but expensive,” Lann said.

Interiors with vaulted ceilings, crown molding and decorative plasterwork. And, of course, the stained glass windows. Among them are the Louis Comfort Tiffany ones at Liberty Hill. New Life at Calvary on Euclid Avenue in Fairfax, whose official name is Calvary Presbyterian Church, has stained glass windows by John La Farge. Greater Friendship Baptist Church on Arlington Avenue in Glenville has windows by Cleveland’s Douglas Phillips, believed to have been the only Black artist here to have run his own stained glass studio between 1952 and his death in 1995.

All of the churches mentioned in this article are on the National Register of Historic Places. (Despite a common misbelief that having that status increases the cost of repairs and restoration, Lann said this isn’t necessarily true.)

The beauty of many of these churches is in more than just their buildings. Many have played a role in Cleveland’s civil rights and other history. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at several of them, and some of them hosted meetings that were pivotal in Carl B. Stokes being elected in 1967 as the first Black mayor of a major U.S. city.

Many of Cleveland’s historic Black churches focus on serving the community 

The significance of these churches is not just based in the past. Many of the congregations have community-focused ministries, ranging from food pantries and meals to mental health services to tutoring and educational programs. And they are often looking to do more. Pastors in Fairfax, including those at historic Black churches, meet regularly to see how collaborating on their food programs can better help the people they serve, said the Rev. Kellie C. Sullivan, senior pastor of New Life at Calvary. 

“If they get that fund, it will strengthen every single church that can use it,” she said. “We want to do the work of taking care of people in the community. We end up having to put that dream on hold.”

The reality of stewarding old church buildings includes constant concerns about repairs and how to pay for them: ‘I’ve got a hole in my roof, my foundation needs work,” Sullivan said.

It will most likely take several years to raise the money for the fund, Doten said. CRS just started its search for a major gifts officer, who will do much of the fundraising. CRS also needs to determine just how the fund will support the capital projects of Black congregations. This includes the types of big ticket projects that will qualify and whether the money will be awarded as only grants or as a mix of grants and forgivable loans, she said.

Pastors who have worked with CRS say that such a fund is greatly needed. They include the Rev. Dr. Lisa Maxine Goods, Shiloh’s senior pastor, the Rev. Brian Cash, East Mt. Zion’s senior pastor and the Rev. Michael L. Brown, Liberty Hill’s senior pastor. For example, Brown said Liberty Hill has a $100,000 capital improvements fund, but it is not enough. For example, the colossal brick building, which spans more than a city block, needs tuckpointing that will cost at least $400,000, and the church also needs extensive electrical and plumbing upgrades, he said.

Each congregation is mindful that they occupy buildings once home to white congregations – synagogues in the case of Shiloh and Liberty Hill –  that fled as surrounding neighborhoods increasingly became Black. This is one of the reasons why the Black churches that bought these buildings many decades ago are determined to stay put. 

“We could move out into the suburbs and find a building that costs less to operate,” Brown of Liberty Hill said. “If we move out of the community we need to serve, then we’re not doing our purpose.” 

He, like the other pastors interviewed, expects that demand for their food and other community-focused ministries will only increase if proposed federal cuts are approved – further tattering the social safety net. 

East Mt. Zion is determined to remain because of its community-focused ministries and its place in Cleveland history. In 1955, it became the first Black congregation to buy a church on Euclid Avenue, once known as Millionaires’ Row. 

Goods speaks of the boarded up businesses and the closed church buildings within a several-block radius of Shiloh.

“If we were to leave, I think people would feel like it’s another piece of death to this community,” she said.

Racial wealth gap complicates funding capital improvement plans at historic Black churches 

CRS didn’t set out to start a fund for Black churches. As the nonprofit worked with churches through its Sacred Landmarks Support Initiative, assessing buildings and offering technical assistance, it found a recurring theme among the Black churches.

“Many of these Black congregations in Cleveland that are stewarding these buildings are pretty underresourced,” Doten said. “There has been deferred maintenance because there wasn’t extra money lying around for capital projects.” 

CRS saw that these churches had fewer monetary resources than white congregations of similar size. Decades ago, many were able to contend with the racial wealth gap by having congregations of a few thousand members. This is no longer an option because of the national trend of lower church attendance in a city where population has steadily declined. Now, most of these churches have fewer than 500 members – many far fewer.

Seeing such a big need, CRS at first wanted to meet it in a big way.

“We originally were thinking about a $10 million campaign because one project could be millions of dollars,” Lann said.

Because the small organization has never launched such a large fundraising effort, its consultant recommended starting with a $5 million campaign.

Getting grants can sometimes be challenging for historic Black churches

CRS wants to create a fund that addresses issues, such as reimbursement requirements, that have been hurdles to getting money for repairs.

Many private foundations don’t cover capital projects. Other funders don’t want to give directly to religious institutions. (CRS can sometimes get around this by partnering with a church on the grant application.) Matching grants often require churches to raise the total amount of the grant to get full funding.  A potential solution could be the fund helping churches close the gap between what they are able to raise and what they need to raise to get the full match, Doten said.

Charles L. Williams and Wille Wilson are trustees at Cory United Methodist Church on East 105 Street in Glenville, which worked with CRS to receive $1 million in grants a few years ago from the National Park Service. The grants paid for a full masonry and terra cotta exterior restoration, which included restoring the granite front stairs that hadn’t been used for years. 

Both men wished Cory could have tapped into a fund. They said the church’s finances took a big hit when the church had to come up with a $100,000 match. Much of the work was required for safety reasons due to loose masonry and terra cotta that could have fallen from the building. Despite the financial sacrifice, they’re glad the church did the project.

“We’re still ecstatic about the beautiful work that was done,” Willams said.

And there is much more work to be done, including spending at least a few hundred thousand dollars to restore historic windows.

Sullivan of New Life at Calvary, which has worked with CRS, can relate. A few years ago, the church replaced a structural beam in the sanctuary that had been supporting the roof since 1883. Then In 2023, a tornado tore off the roof over another part of the church. 

Last year, the church received a $175,000 matching grant from the National Fund for Sacred Places. If New Life at Calvary wants to receive the full amount, it must raise $175,000 by October 2026. The money will pay for dire exterior masonry repairs, including repointing, patching and cleaning. The church was designed by Charles F. Schweinfurth, a preeminent Cleveland architect of the late 1800s and early 1900s, whose work includes the bridges over Martin Luther King Jr. Drive near Interstate 90. Few of his buildings remain.

“Being part of a historical church is an amazing experience,” Sullivan said. “The challenge is that these buildings are in constant need of maintenance.”

Signal Cleveland Economics Reporter Olivera Perkins is a member of New Life at Calvary.