Project to preserve Union Bethel AME Church hits snags, but efforts continuing
The effort to preserve the historic Union Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Great Falls has hit a few snags in recent months, but those working on the project are hopeful it will continue moving forward.
Last summer, the Montana Historical Society was awarded a nearly half-million dollar grant to stabilize and provide safe access to the church.
The $497,712 grant is through the U.S. Department of Interior’s National Park Service and its Historic Preservation Fund’s African American Civil Rights grant program.
Coupled with the church’s $200,000 grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Saving Black Churches program, the funds will provide repairs to the failing exterior brick; installation of a new lift to provide access; create ADA-compliant bathrooms; and update the electrical system, according to MTHS.
The NPS grant program focuses on preserving sites and stories directly associated with African Americans’ struggles to gain equal rights.
The Montana State Historic Preservation Office asked the City of Great Falls to administer the grant to allow more of the grant funding to pass through to the church project since the state is required take a portion of the grant for administrative costs.
During a Nov. 19 City Commission work session, Kate Hampton, community preservation coordinator at SHPO, wrote the grant application for the church, said that her office negotiates that rate with NPS annually and the 2024 rate was 23.5 percent, which is a “big chunk of change.”
Effort to preserve United Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church receives $497k grant
Hampton asked city staff if they’d assume administration of the grant since they can take a smaller portion of the grant for administrative costs.
During the meeting, city staff and commissioners expressed some concerns with administering the grant.
During the Feb. 12 City-County Historic Preservation Advisory Commission meeting, Sam Long, the city’s historic preservation officer, told the group that the city had declined to serve as the passthrough for the NPS grant due to concerns about liability, staff time and funding availability.
Long said it was “disappointing” but that SHPO had found an alternative path.
City Manager Greg Doyon told The Electric that “no decision had been made” on whether to act as a passthrough for the NPS grant and that the state submitted an alternative that has yet to be reviewed by the City Commission that is currently under staff review.
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Hampton, the state’s preservation officer, told The Electric by phone on Feb. 12 that they were looking to pass through a local government entity to avoid a large chunk of funds going to overhead, which is a requirement if the state administers the grant.
Hampton said that since the city had declined to be the passthrough, her office was going to pass the funds directly to the church itself. She said the church was working now to complete the necessary paperwork to be able to accept federal funds.
“We’re really trying to not pull that money out of the grant and have it go to overhead, when we want all of it to go toward the project itself,” Hampton said.
Once the necessary federal registrations and certifications are completed, Hampton said her office will contract with the church for the funds to pass to them since SHPO already has a contract with the National Park Service to receive the grant.
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Hampton said that the combined grants are about $700,000 for the project, but bids came back in much higher, around $1.3 million, so they’re scaling back plans and redesigning the project.
She said they’re working to pass about $20,000 through the city through other SHPO funding sources to cover the cost of those redesigns. That project funding is included in the city’s annual certified local government application for historic preservation funding.
During the Feb. 12 HPAC meeting, Long, the city historic preservation officer, said that application goes before commissioners for approval at their March 4 meeting.
With the National Trust grant, which is private, Hampton said those overseeing the project are looking to move forward with those funds toward the brick repair portion of the project so they don’t miss a building season and don’t delay the project further than needed.
She said that option wasn’t finalized but that was their current thinking since the brick repair can be completed independent of the other project components while they’re waiting on federal grant assurances.
With the federal funding freezes and rapid policy changes under the new administration, Hampton said “we’re kind of holding our breath.”
Ken Sievert, HPAC member and architect on the Union Bethel project, said that by reducing the scope of the project, “unfortunately, we’re going to lose some of the things we were trying to accomplish.”
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He said there was also a concern that because of some of the federal “introspection on grants, politics, call it what you will,” that there may be issues since the grant is issued through programs designed to preserve Black history and there’s a “certain reluctance to getting a contractor started and then have somebody jerk the rug out from under the project.”
The Union Bethel AME church stands at 916 5th Ave. S. and is “one of the most significant properties associated with Montana’s African American Civil Rights history. Organized in 1890, congregants dedicated Union Bethel’s current church in 1917. By the 1910s, discriminatory ‘Jim Crow’ laws infiltrated Montana’s codes and local ordinances, placing restrictions on Black residents’ ability to marry, work, and patronize businesses. Unofficial but pervasive policies placed many constraints on African Americans. In response, Union Bethel AME became the center of Great Falls African American citizens’ civil rights work for social uplift, education, and equality at the local, state, and national levels,” according to a MTHS release.
The church that remains today was the second church on the location and completed in 1917.
According to the NPS’ document entering the church onto the National Register of Historic Places, the church is a “tall, one-story, rectangular, wooden structure with brick veneer that is sheltered by a steep gable roof. The overall presentation of the church is one of studied formalism, tidiness, and substance. Drawing predominately from Gothic Revival influences, the church also exhibits eclectic influences, borrowing from Tudor styles in the parapeted gable roof, crowsteps and the unbroken wall surface on the southern elevation. Features possibly drawn from Italian Renaissance styles include the square, centered tower and the wide overhangs supported by paired, wooden brackets. Exterior wall surfacing on the church is running bond and decorative brickwork is understated. It includes a soldier course above the foundation and double rowlock perimeters at the window heads.”
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The church underwent minimal repairs or alterations during the “period of significance from 1917-1950,” but after 1950, vandalism destroyed the original stained glass windows, which were replaced with textured glass, according to the NPS document.
“Despite this diminished integrity of materials and design, the building still retains sufficient integrity to convey its significance. The steeple roof also has been reshingled. Original lights and pews perpetuate the interior historic feeling. Overall, the building retains a high degree of historic integrity in terms of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling and association. During the period of significance the parsonage was reduced from the size it attained during the expansion of 1924, and was completely razed from the property in 1982,’ according to the NPS document.
Pastor Betsy Williams describes the Gothic Revival-style church as a jewel in the neighborhood and in a MTHS release, said, “I see life that comes from here. It’s a shining brightness…in the middle of this neighborhood; [it] is somewhere where you can gather, where there can be resources, where there can be help, where there can be spiritual uplifting.”
Photos courtesy of the Montana Historical Society
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