The Learning Lab series provides practical tips, advice, and guidance on specific historic preservation topics that are relevant to African American preservation projects. We hope these posts help community members and leaders better navigate the complexities of historic preservation work successfully.
Short Description of topic
African American churches play a fundamental role in our communities. Foundational to African American religious, political, economic, and social life, African American churches continue to inform and shape African American identity today. They serve as houses of worship, as well as social centers, safe havens and cultural repositories, and provide vital social services and spaces that uplift their communities. African American churches promote economic development, strengthen community ties and foster growth for future generations. Preserving church history is important to making connections to wider historical contributions by individuals who are African American.
Regular upkeep and building maintenance. Regular weekly cleaning. Periodic deep cleaning and systematic maintenance on the structure itself. Major undertakings, such as steeple repair/replacement, roof repair, wood preservation and HVAC system maintenance/upgrades. Fiscal responsibility is important to maintain monetary assets for incidental costs related to the building.
Maintaining meeting minutes. Maintaining accurate meeting minutes can help to create a historical footprint for events in church history. It can also create a relationship that is documented by date in relation to historical community and world events. Minutes should document members who are present and also in leadership positions, as well as decisions and actions made.
Sermon recordings and manuscripts. Sermon recordings and manuscripts can document individual leaders and speakers and their notes as they relate to historical events.
Oral and written history. Oral histories are a valuable tool for capturing and preserving information about historical events, major developments in Church units, lives of individual members, testimonies, and memories that may otherwise be lost. Written history was not as prevalent for African Americans. Therefore, we have relied on the stories passed along over generations of time. History, whether oral or written, can reveal stories of the African American church’s struggle to prosper, with setbacks and successes. Written history and transcription is important so the stories can be easily shared with future generations and researchers.
Physical artifacts and documents. Most important in this category are deeds, mortgages, property abstracts, and insurance policies that might need to be kept in a safe and secure location. It is also important to maintain photographs, church programs, and documents from church events.
News articles. Local newspaper articles can help piece together and corroborate the history and community connections of the church to historic events. Newspapers may carry the obituaries of church members or announcements of engagements, weddings, or other special events in the life of the congregation or its members.
Member interviews. Records from individuals help to preserve anecdotal information that can provide a more personal history of church events and celebrations. Interviews can capture the history of the church as viewed through the lives of its members.
Cemetery Records. Cemetery records may have a significance for research purposes, especially for family history. As gravestones deteriorate, confusion might develop if the written record of cemetery plots is lost.
Baptismal/Member records/lists/directories. Knowing the date of baptisms or memberships of ancestors can be very valuable historically. The composition of a congregation at various points in time would often be valuable in representing the church’s history. Directories give future historians access to full names, family members, addresses, and other information about the congregation that’s useful to their research.
Family histories. Family records and documents can reveal deep relationships to the church. Certain families may have frequent connections to the church that can contribute to church history. Family reunions also tend to incorporate the church in annual and semi-annual gatherings.
The Learning Lab series provides practical tips, advice, and guidance on specific historic preservation topics that are relevant to African American preservation projects. We hope these posts help community members and leaders better navigate the complexities of historic preservation work successfully.
Why does this matter and how is it relevant to African American preservation?
Sacred spaces and churches are cornerstones in the fabric of African American culture and history. These sites often simultaneously hold space for trauma, grief, joy, celebration, and resistance. They also have historically served as community centers for organizing, activism, education, and mutual care. Sacred places are an integral part of our cultural landscape, yet many sites have fallen into disrepair as buildings age and congregations change. These spaces are excellent candidates for historic preservation and rehabilitation.
10 Tips for Preserving a Historic Sacred Space
Define what sacred space means to you and your community – is it a church building? A location where a sacred activity took place (eg: Witness trees, brush arbor churches, baptism springs etc)? A location that is hallowed ground due to the events that took place there (site of a traumatic event, site of resistance or celebration?) A cemetery?
Find out who owns the space and its associated property. Is it owned by a religious group (eg: local Baptist association, Methodist association, etc.)? Is it owned in trust by the trustees of the church? Is it owned by a private citizen?
Contact the religious association, the trustees, or the property owner. Find out what their commitment to and understanding of preservation might be. Do they know the church needs to be preserved? Do they support the preservation of the church? Can they contribute financially or otherwise to its preservation? Find out actually how much they are committed to preserving this space and try to find out if they will pose obstacles or roadblocks to preservation.
Find out some preliminary basic information on the building or space: What is the state of the building or space? Is it safe to be in? Is it still standing or does it no longer exist (called “no longer extant” in preservation speak)? How old is the original structure? What updates have been made to the original structure? How much of the original building remains? Is the original building gone and has been replaced by a later building, and if so, what is the age of that building?
Bonus! Think through if your sacred space contains other buildings – many churches have associated cemeteries. Is the cemetery going to be included in preservation plans or will that be addressed later, if addressed at all? Cemeteries require a specific and careful type of preservation, so many church preservation projects do not initially include cemeteries as part of the preservation project, although they may address the cemetery through research or interpretation later on.
You are probably going to need an expert to identify the state of disrepair, if it is structurally sound, and what the extent of preservation might need to be. This would be a physical preservation expert – possibly an architect, an engineer, or other professional. Find professionals in our Experts Database.
Explore grant funding specifically for sacred spaces. One such grant is the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s National Fund for Sacred Spaces. Find other grants in our Grant Match database.
Find out if the property owner would be willing to participate in a Revolving Fund. Revolving Funds are one way that physical buildings like these get preserved – it involves the current owners selling the building for a smaller amount to a sponsoring organization (one such organization is Preservation South Carolina). The sponsoring organization will take over ownership and find funding to rehabilitate and preserve the building (usually is a multi-year process) and when preservation is complete, will sell the building back to the community or agreed upon owner at a lower rate.
Find out if your building or space would meet the qualifications for being listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This designation is a complex process, usually taking at least a year and usually more to complete, and might require you to hire or seek out a professional who knows how to write successful National Register nominations. But once listed, your site becomes eligible for some additional funding and protection. Note – you will need the property owner’s permission to do this.
Work within your community to identify your stakeholders and work collaboratively to outline how the community wishes to see the building or space used after it is preserved. Many funders and experts will want to know if it is an active congregation – will the congregation return to worshiping in the space after preservation work is completed? Is it an inactive congregation, whose participants have spread out to other churches, and are no longer really connected? If that is the case, are there memories, stories, and legacies from this space that can still be saved? Will the building be used as a community center or even a museum/historic site? Define what your community wants the future of this space to be early on in your project and be able to describe the importance and impact of that use in your community to funders.
Start researching and planning now for how you will maintain the preservation of your historic sacred place beyond just the initial preservation project. Many people don’t realize that preservation is an ongoing maintenance process that requires capacity building and possibly capital support. Some larger churches are able to create non-profits and fundraise both within the church congregation and externally to grant funders to create a preservation endowment. While this is not feasible for every church, especially smaller rural churches without bigger active congregations, it is worthwhile to consider and plan for the ongoing maintenance of your space from the beginning.
The Learning Lab series provides practical tips, advice, and guidance on specific historic preservation topics that are relevant to African American preservation projects. We hope these posts help community members and leaders better navigate the complexities of historic preservation work successfully.
What We’re Reading: Historic Preservation Edition I
Author: Brent Leggs, National Trust for Historic Preservation
Recommendation: This report asks a crucial question: “how can preservation be a force for advancing equitable development and social justice in African American neighborhoods and other communities of color? This report seeks to unpack some of the multidimensional and intersectional issues stemming from place-based structural inequities that continue to impact communities today. Our goal is twofold: first, to understand the implications of different forms of place-based injustice and their impact on the preservation of African American cultural heritage; and second, to identify preservation-based strategies for equitable growth that respect the historical and present-day realities and conditions of African American neighborhoods.”
Recommendation: This newly published collection highlights places across the US where we can see systemic racism in the built environment and the erasure of Black communities. “Black landscapes matter because they tell the truth. In this vital new collection, acclaimed landscape designer and public artist Walter Hood assembles a group of notable landscape architecture and planning professionals and scholars to probe how race, memory, and meaning intersect in the American landscape.”
Topics: cultural landscapes, architecture, built environment, art, memory
Recommendation: An interesting read to learn an overview of the history of African American historic preservation and the struggles still embodied today. This article features the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund as a major player and features some stories of preservation projects as they fight to protect and honor their legacy. Click here for a free pdf.
Recommendation: Colleges and universities contain some of our oldest buildings – a fact that many both within and outside of the campus place value in. But preservation has not always been a priority for campuses, and especially not conversations about what campuses should preserve and why. This is starting to shift however, and this article covers this growing shift in preservation thinking.
Recommendation: This book focuses on preservation of cities, and “the many ways that saving and restoring [the] historic fabric can help a city create thriving neighborhoods, good jobs, and a vibrant economy.” The history of urban development and recent urban resurgence is discussed and itt acknowledges both the positives and deep issues with this phenomenon (although it is not a book about the effects of urban renewal on Black communities, and could do a better job of addressing this reality.) The author “explains the critical importance of preservation for all our communities, the ways the historic preservation field has evolved to embrace the challenges of the twenty-first century, and the innovative work being done in the preservation space now.”
Recommendation: “In this instant New York Times bestseller, Jermaine Fowler takes a sweeping survey of human history to show how Black humanity has been erased and how its recovery can save the humanity of us all.”
Topics: Black history, whitewashed history, erasure, truth-telling, memory
Recommendation: South Carolina historic preservationist Joseph McGill, Jr. began the Slave Dwelling Project in 2010 in order to bring attention to the fact that formerly enslaved peoples’ dwellings still stand, and to foster honest conversations about history and race. “In this enlightening personal account, one man tells the story of his groundbreaking project to sleep overnight in former slave dwellings that still stand across the country—revealing the fascinating history behind these sites and shedding light on larger issues of race in America.”
