Towerful News for St. Luke AME Church

Great news: Funding for the ambitious and extensive St. Luke AME Church preservation project is now complete, thanks to additional money from three funding sources that have helped from the beginning of the brick and window rehabilitation work on the historic structure.

Work on the windows and wood louver openings on the two west towers will now be completed, thanks to a $10,000 grant from the Shelley Miller Trust and a $5,000 donation from Jeff and Mary Weinberg. A six-month no-interest loan of $25,000 from Lawrence Preservation Alliance will pay final construction bills while state rehabilitation tax credits that have been accrued during the project are awarded and then sold to repay the loan.

Last year, $43,000 raised by LPA members—spearheaded by a $10,000 challenge grant by the Weinbergs—was combined with a $90,000 Kansas Heritage Trust Fund grant and a $57,750 grant from the Douglas County Heritage Conservation Council to repair and repoint the brick walls on the north, south and east sides of the church, as well as restore the two large stained- glass windows. But once that admittedly huge step was done, a significant amount of work on both west towers remained with no money to fund it.

The stained-glass Windows are in the process of being restored at Hoefer’s Custom Stained Glass in Hutchinson.

This spring, the Heritage Conservation Council provided a second grant of $30,000 to repair the brick on the south tower. Some contingency funding was left over, and GKW Restoration Group, the Kansas City masonry contractor, lowered its cost so that the brick work could include the north tower while the job setup was still in place. That left only the tower windows and louver openings—some in very poor condition—to fund so the project could be completed.

The masons have completed their work and left the site. Now all that remains is to finish the window and louver work on the towers and reinstall the stained-glass windows that are currently in the shop of Hoefer’s Custom Stained Glass in Hutchison.

The project had a modest beginning in 2019 when Hernly and Associates, the architecture firm that wrote all the grant applications and has been generous with its throughout, designed an accessibility improvement project for the basement entry on the church’s north side. That achieved cost savings by coordinating with city improvements to 9th Street that were occurring at the same time. To help fund that work, LPA provided a $2,500 grant and the Shelley Miller Trust provided $5,000. From that point on, a partnership of granting agencies, preservationists and the St. Luke congregation has been able to keep the ball rolling to get the job done.

The stained-glass Windows are in the process of being restored at Hoefer’s Custom Stained Glass in Hutchinson.

St. Luke AME, built in 1910 and in continuous use by a predominantly Black congregation since, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as well as the Kansas and Lawrence historic registers. St. Luke AME has long been associated with the struggle for racial equality in Lawrence and is one of the few remaining Lawrence buildings with documented ties to the celebrated writer Langston Hughes. Since 1991, when the possibility of historic listing for the structure was first discussed, LPA has been supportive of St. Luke AME as a cultural site that needs to be preserved.

Once these final tasks on the windows, louvers and stained glass are complete, everyone who has participated in this great project over the years can take satisfaction in knowing that this historic community structure is now in the best shape it’s been in since at least the 1960s.