Partners for Sacred Places

SACRED PLACES
T H E M A G A Z I N E O F P A R T N E R S F O R S A C R E D P L A C E S • S P R I N G 2 0 1 0
Regional News
- Exemplars Project Profile: Breaking
Bread at Broad Street Ministry
- Galveston, TX, One Year Later
National News
- What Do We Know
- Asset Mapping in Greensboro, NC
Technical Brief
- Profile of Art of Glass, Inc.
Information Clearinghouse
- “Green” Resources for Your Sacred Place
FEATURE STORY:
Germantown Speaks –
Intergenerational discussions on the
Philadelphia neighborhood’s past and
present
www.sacredplaces.org

TABLE OF CONTENTS
3
15
19
21
22
Update on Partners: What Do We Know;
Asset Mapping in North Carolina
FEATURE STORY:
The Commercial Corridors Project
Clearinghouse Feature:
“Green” Resources
Professional Alliance Spotlight:
The Art of Glass, Inc.
Professional Alliance Directory
ABOUT PARTNERS
Partners for Sacred Places is the only national,
nonsectarian, nonprofit organization dedicated to
the sound stewardship and active community use
of America’s older religious properties.
Partners’ Programs and
Services Include:
• Training. New Dollars/New Partners for Your
Sacred Place is an intensive program that gives
congregations with older buildings the skills and
resources to broaden their base of support.
• Regional Offices. Partners offers training,
technical assistance and capital improvement
grants through its Pennsylvania, Texas, and
Chicago Offices.
• Workshops and Conferences. Partners’ staff
speaks on a variety of topics at national and
regional conferences.
• Publications. Some of Partners’ books include:
- Your Sacred Place Is a Community
Asset: A Tool Kit to Attract New Resources
and Partners
- The Complete Guide to Capital
Campaigns for Historic Churches
and Synagogues
• Information Clearinghouse. This web-based
resource provides information related to the care
and use of older sacred places.
(www.
sacredplaces.org/information_center.htm)
• Advocacy Initiatives. Partners works with civic
leaders, funders and policymakers, urging them
to adopt policies and practices that provide new
resources to older religious properties.
COVER PHOTO: Participants at a Germantown
Speaks event, with a historic photo of
the former Market Square Church in the
background. Photo credit for Market Square
Church: PhillyHistory.org
CORRECTION: In the Fall 2009 issue we
incorrectly identified the Church of Holy Cross-
Immaculata as being in Mt. Airy. It is in the
Mt. Adams neighborhood of Cincinnati, OH.
FROM THE
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
You’ll soon hear more about Partners’
five-year goals, since we are near the end of
an energizing and enormously productive
strategic planning process. But one thing
is clear even now – Partners’ Board and
staff are strongly committed to providing
intensive help in regions where there is
need, leadership, and energy, including
Pennsylvania, Texas, and Chicago where we
have offices now. And we want to do more to
help congregations use their sacred places to
strengthen and serve their communities.
If you’ve read about the development and
growth of our New Dollars/New Partners training program in previous
issues, you’ll know that we help congregations identify the gifts and
strengths they have in their buildings, as well as the assets they can
engage with in their towns or neighborhoods. Those assets – such as
community development corporations, schools, neighborhood groups
and social service agencies – can bring new funding, programs, and
volunteers to sacred places, helping to sustain them for years to come.
In that spirit, we are starting to convene and support clusters of
congregations as they work together to identify assets and opportunities
that can advance the development of their community. The results of
this work, already, are remarkable. A group of churches along Baltimore
Avenue in West Philadelphia (see page 18) have developed a Venue
Menu that promotes the community use of the building spaces they
have available. Our main article (starting on page 15) tells a powerful
story involving several churches, a high school, seminary and historic
house museum in Northwest Philadelphia. Our thanks go to Molly
Lester, who manages our Pennsylvania office, for shepherding both
projects.
And our story from Greensboro, NC, (see page 6) tells a parallel story
of churches and a neighborhood coming together to think about how
they can use their collective assets to solve problems and pursue
opportunities they have in common. Benjamin Briggs, Executive
Director of Preservation Greensboro, has worked closely with Sarah
Peveler, our Senior Trainer, to make this project possible, and we are
delighted that he agreed to write this article.
I believe that these projects are just a hint of what is to come. Stay tuned
for a fuller report on Partners’ five-year goals, and how we plan to
dramatically build our outreach to congregations and the communities
they serve.
BOB JAEGER
Sacred Places • Spring 2010 • 2

UPDATE on Partners:
1700 Sansom Street
10th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Partners@sacredplaces.org
www.sacredplaces.org
(215) 567-3234
Board of Directors
The Rev. Dr. Thomas E. Frank, Chair
The Rev. Dr. Roy G. Almquist
The Rev. Dennis A. Andersen
The Very Rev. John F. Canary
David R. Cooper
Mary Werner DeNadai, FAIA
The Rev. Dr. W. Wilson Goode, Sr.
The Rev. Pierce W. Klemmt
Corlis S. Moody
James R. Nader, FAIA
The Rev. R. Scott Sheldon
Robert White
Gordon R. Woodrow
Staff
A. Robert Jaeger, Executive Director
Tuomi Joshua Forrest, Associate Director
Gianfranco Grande, Director of
Development; Director, Chicago Office
Geoffrey Harden, Office and Information
Technology Manager
Molly Lester, Grants and Program Director,
Philadelphia Regional Fund
Marie Malloy, Director of Operations
Rana Gidumal McNamara, Associate Director
of Development
Sarah F. Peveler, Senior Trainer
Elizabeth Terry, Director of Training
Suzanne Yowell, Administrative Coordinator,
Texas Office
Sacred Places Production
Neeta McCulloch, Editor
Comparing Notes in London
In October 2008, Andrew Edwards – Director of the National
Churches Trust (NCT) in Great Britain – visited Philadelphia to
see Partners’ work firsthand. Intrigued by the possibilities for
collaboration, a delegation of Partners’ executive staff and board
members spent four days in England in December 2009 meeting with
leaders from NCT and other national organizations that help historic
churches in Britain. Bob Jaeger, Tuomi Forrest and Gianfranco
Grande, along with board members Tom Frank and Roy Almquist, met
with NCT’s senior staff and trustees as well as other key leaders in the
sector. They also visited with clergy and lay leaders from several rural
and urban churches in London and Suffolk.
Of the several organizations in the UK that work with historic
churches, NCT is the one that most closely resembles Partners. It is a
national nonprofit that works with a broad range of churches, offering
an array of technical and financial support to sacred places. Partners
also met with the director of the Churches Conservation Trust, which
preserves “redundant” church buildings and seeks to re-use them
for community purposes; a representative of English Heritage, which
promotes historic preservation with funding dedicated to historic
churches and cathedrals; and staff from the Cathedral and Church
Building Division of the Church of England.
These meetings intensified and expanded Partners’ international
conversations on historic sacred places, helping us understand the
issues we have in common, while sharing innovative approaches to
working with historic sacred places. Partners will continue these
discussions in the months to come, hoping to develop collaborations
that advance our work in important new ways.
Partners met with representatives from numerous UK organizations
similar to ours on a four-day visit to England last December.
3 • Sacred Places • www.sacredplaces.org • Spring 2010

New Dollars/New Partners PLUS
Recent New Dollars/New Partners training in Milwaukee,
WI, sponsored by the Greater Milwaukee Synod of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, underwent
a metamorphosis, becoming a more intense and
collaborative process. Known as New Dollars/New
Partners PLUS, it maintains all the features of the
standard program with the increased involvement of
architects and Partners’ staff.
In New Dollars PLUS, architects assisted in the
repair planning process, provided cost estimates,
and suggested a phasing strategy for each building’s
restoration. “The architects enjoyed it,” says Partners’
Executive Director Bob Jaeger. “A project like this
allows them to connect with their community.”
More “face time” also provided an opportunity for staff
to spend more time getting to know the participants
and their communities, and allowed congregations
to have their specific concerns addressed. Additional
funding from three regional foundations enabled
the congregations to have building condition surveys
completed – often the first step to raising funds for
and undertaking capital improvement projects. “It is a
more intense infusion of resources,” adds Jaeger, “and
it means we can go further and move faster than [the
congregations] would have alone.”
JOIN PARTNERS
One Place to Turn
Everything you need to care for your sacred place
can be found when you join Partners for Sacred
Places. Find experts on everything from steeples
and clock towers to slate roofs to architects who
understand your congregation’s needs.
For over twenty years, Partners for Sacred Places
has been the one to turn to for advice, expertise, and
inspiration.
Partners’ members receive:
• Information Clearinghouse access– search
and browse through a unique collection of books,
tutorials and research that focuses on older houses
of worship.
• The Professional Alliance Directory, a listing of
firms that are expert in the field of restoration and
care of historic religious buildings.
• Monthly Partners E-zine, filled with articles,
tools and tips to help you care for your sacred place
• Sacred Places magazine
• Invitations to regional workshops featuring
speakers on energy efficiency, stained glass, major
donor programs, and more
Many Thanks to
Redeemer
Lutheran Church
in Milwaukee, WI,
which participated
in the New Dollars/
New Partners
PLUS training, is
in the process of
calculating its public
value numbers.
• Suzanna Barucco and Philip Scott, Kise Straw
& Kolodner, a Professional Alliance member,
Philadelphia, PA
who have donated their time to New Dollars/New
Partners for Your Sacred Place training in the
past four months.
This year, members at the Donor Circle Level of
$125 will receive
• Sacred Places in Transition, written by Partners’
founder and Executive Director, A. Robert Jaeger.
A helpful guide for involving architects in thinking
about the use of spaces in your sacred place.
Available as a CD.
Or, at the Donor Circle Level of $200, members
will receive the
• Maintenance Manual, a workbook that includes
checklists, organizers and information for you to
maintain your sacred property.
Join congregations across the country with a
membership to Partners for Sacred Places! For
more information, please contact Rana McNamara
at rmcnamara@sacredplaces.org or use the enclosed
envelope to join today.
Sacred Places • Spring 2010 • 4

UPDATE on Partners:
What Do We Know
by Tuomi Forrest, Associate Director
Over the past twenty years, Partners’ identity as an
organization has grown from its unique “intellectual capital.”
This capital is nothing more, or less, than our ever-evolving
understanding of what congregations do in two key areas: 1)
how they use their many assets, including their buildings, to
benefit the community, nurture social capital, and sustain
neighborhoods; and 2) how they raise funds, especially
from the wider public, to support building restoration. And,
importantly, we look at how these topics interrelate.
The threads of these two subjects weave together for most
successful congregations living out their mission in older
and historic sacred places. They also serve as a leitmotif to
Partners’ own history, and point to where we will go in the
future.
Our first publication, the Complete Guide to Capital Campaigns
for Historic Churches and Synagogues, created one niche for
us. The Guide is the only such book focused on historic
buildings that teaches congregations to raise funds from both
members and the wider public. It helps congregations create
a strong case for support by documenting both their cultural
importance and their community service.
In the mid-1990s Partners created Sacred Places at Risk, the
first national research project to scientifically document
the “public value” of sacred places – the human, financial,
space and other resources a congregation gives to support the
myriad programs that serve the public, ranging from soup
kitchens to mentoring for teens, from concerts to job training.
Partners translated the groundbreaking methodology of
the study (developed in partnership with researchers at the
University of Pennsylvania) into the book Your Sacred Place
is a Community Asset: A Tool Kit to Attract New Resources and
Partners, and then used the Tool Kit and the Guide as core
resources for New Dollars/New Partners for Your Sacred Place
training, now our core national program.
The research also helped inform the larger national
conversation about the role of faith organizations in public
life, and how the public sector could support sacred places,
leading to, among other things, opening up the national “Save
America’s Treasures” funding to active houses of worship.
That arc of thinking and discovery has helped create the
Partners we know today, but there’s always more to learn.
In the course of developing New Dollars we unearthed dozens
of stories of congregations that had successfully raised funds
from the wider public for building restoration. In the past
six years, these stories have been duplicated many times by
graduates of the training.
Since joining Partners in
1997, Tuomi Forrest has
contributed to numerous
Partners publications, is a
lead designer and trainer
for Partners' New Dollars/
New Partners program,
and currently oversees all
of Partners' programming
efforts, including the
development of regional
offices and grant funds.
But what are we learning from these successes We have
the opportunity and the duty to learn more, to dig deeper.
How does it really affect congregational life – lay and clergy
leadership, membership, relations with its neighbors,
its collective self-understanding – when a congregation
organizes and acts to raise funds in a new way
Recently, the Rev. Rodger Broadley wrote to us after his
parish completed the New Dollars training and subsequently
embarked on a capital campaign, “this entire project has
had a deep spiritual and profound communal impact on our
congregation. Leadership, cooperation, and collaboration
have been developed at every level. Creative partnerships
with traditional stakeholders and an emerging group of
friends and neighbors have been entered into.”
Done well, the work that Partners helps congregations
undertake can have far-reaching positive effects on almost
all aspects of its life. But we know it is not always a straight
or easy path. More of these stories – with all their nuances
and points of view – can and should be told, deepening and
broadening the type of information we first presented in the
Guide.
We also have a new opportunity to expand the Sacred Places
at Risk research. By exploring the complex and interrelated
ways a congregation impacts its immediate community, we
can discover the “halo effect” it has on the local economy
(spending and job creation), property values, public safety,
and social service provision. Over two years ago, Partners
began to identify the range of factors that could be studied.
We called together several academic researchers to talk
over our approach and all agreed that the questions we were
asking had not been thoroughly or comprehensively studied.
They confirmed that Partners’ proposed research would
require a more interdisciplinary approach than Sacred Places
at Risk, and could produce powerful and influential findings.
We expect to pilot this methodology in Philadelphia, and
depending upon the results, conduct a larger research
project.
What we know is always unfolding, but for certain it will both
deepen and broaden our – and our society’s – understanding
of the dynamics within congregations and between a
congregation and its community. Most importantly, this
knowledge, though never perfect, will help us serve sacred
places more effectively.
5 • Sacred Places • www.sacredplaces.org • Spring 2010

UPDATE on Partners:
Asset Mapping in
North Carolina
by Benjamin Briggs,
Executive Director of Preservation Greensboro
Growing both historic congregations with diverse
community programs, and healthy historic districts
that foster property investment, is high on every
preservation organization’s wish list. However,
within the context of established historic districts,
conflicts can arise when the expansion of a
congregation’s facilities is done at the expense of
historic properties.
Such is the case in Fisher Park, just outside Greensboro,
NC. This neighborhood of approximately 250 houses has
long been considered one of the state’s premier streetcar
suburbs, featuring a variety of architectural styles united by a
woodland park.
The century-old homes are rivaled only by the
neighborhood’s historic sanctuaries, which include three
designed by celebrated New York City architect Hobart
Upjohn – Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, the oldest of
the triad; Temple Emanuel, dedicated by Greensboro’s
influential Jewish community in 1925; and First
Presbyterian Church, finished in 1929 and arguably
Upjohn’s grandest work.
Both the neighborhood and its sacred places have
made positive contributions to Greensboro’s historic
preservation movement. All three congregations have
kept their sanctuaries in excellent states of preservation
throughout their 80 years in the neighborhood.
Simultaneously, Greensboro’s Historic Preservation
Commission has worked tirelessly for 30 years to stabilize
and cultivate reinvestment in the historic centercity
neighborhoods by developing a system of design
standards and discouraging destruction of properties.
From time to time, congregations have sought to expand
parking or clear their property for future building
projects. On the other hand, residents and homeowners
seek to enhance home values by encouraging private
investment in residential properties. Persuasive
arguments and passionate feelings for both sides of the
demolition-for-church-expansion issue have polarized
residents into pro-neighborhood or pro-congregation
camps.
Comfortable homes and picket fences are common in
the Fisher Park historic district of Greensboro, NC.
Photo courtesy of Preservation Greensboro.
In order to address increasing division in the
neighborhood, the city-wide nonprofit organization
Preservation Greensboro teamed with Partners for Sacred
Places, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and
the Greensboro-based Covington Foundation to hold
a community design workshop to explore the future of
Fisher Park through thoughtful and positive dialogue.
At the heart of the discussion is how this historic
neighborhood might grow and flourish as one of North
Carolina’s most cosmopolitan locales without sacrificing
its culture or its institutions. The city blocks that
constitute the study area are home not only to major
religious congregations, but also to a network of city- and
state-wide nonprofits, county government buildings,
the city’s oldest public park, a sprawling Victorian-era
cemetery, and a soon-to-be-constructed downtown
greenway. How can these varied institutions grow and
thrive in a way that benefits all
Held in November 2009 at Holy Trinity, the free
event was open to the public and included a workshop
facilitated by Luther K. Snow, the nationally recognized
author of The Power of Asset Mapping. Participants
Sacred Places • Spring 2010 • 6

UPDATE: Asset Mapping (cont.)
focused on the strengths and assets of the Fisher Park
neighborhood while Snow guided them through exercises
that resulted in creative project ideas that prompted action.
Over the course of the workshop, attended by
approximately seventy stakeholders, several initiatives
were identified, including cultivating special events to
spur synergy and social interaction between residents and
congregation members; promoting the neighborhood as
a “sacred zone” of cultural and spiritual institutions; and
recognizing that collaborative development opportunities
were possible on under-utilized land.
Residents continue to hold meetings to prioritize
opportunities and initiatives identified in the workshop.
For the first time in recent memory, residents see their
neighborhood’s sacred spaces as assets that help brand
their community as a unique place in Greensboro.
Similarly, congregations are beginning to see themselves
as partners within the fabric of the Fisher Park community,
and are seeking opportunities to participate in local events.
Perhaps the tide has turned in a way that historic Fisher
Park can thrive – more than ever – as a dynamic renewed
neighborhood!
Photo courtesy of Preservation Greensboro.
This stone bridge is a trademark feature of the wooded
park in the heart of the Fisher Park historic district of
Greensboro, NC.

UPDATE on Partners:
The Philadelphia
Regional Fund
Exemplars Project
The Exemplars Project is nearing completion (with
opportunities for further research or replication in the
future). This one-year initiative, funded by the William
Penn Foundation, has identified, spotlighted and called
attention to congregation-hosted programs that are
particularly innovative, affordable and effective. This
project has expanded the scope of Partners’ advocacy,
building on the research of our pioneering 1998 study,
Sacred Places at Risk.
As part of this project, Partners has developed several
program profiles that will be used in our ongoing efforts
to communicate the value and impact of historic sacred
places. (See page 9 for the case study of Breaking Bread,
hosted by Broad Street Ministry.)
A key objective in this project has been the testimony of
the Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC),
an external program evaluator, which has developed
specific quality indicators for programs in twelve
categories. PHMC’s evaluative profiles will support
Partners’ advocacy work with public or private funders,
building the case for the support of these exemplary
programs and the congregations that host them.
Commercial Corridors Project
One year into this pilot initiative, which has been
supported by the Citi Foundation, the coalitions of
congregations and organizations along Baltimore and
Germantown Avenues are celebrating their first projects
Philadelphia Regional Fund for
Sacred Places Advisory Committee
The Rev. Dr. Roy G. Almquist
Charles B. Casper, Esq.
Julia Chapman
J. Randall Cotton
Helen Cunningham
Scott Doyle
James Flaherty
Dr. Ira Harkavy
Mark Alan Hughes
Emanuel Kelly, FAIA
James Kise, AIA
Catherine Lynch
Dr. Roger Moss
Anne Pizzoli
The Rev. Aidan Rooney, C.M.
Michael Stern
Monica Taylor
Frank Vagnone
Geraldine Wang
Eric Wilden
David Winkowski
At the Module IV New Dollars training sponsored by the
Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia, members of
Nueva Vida/Norristown New Life receive their completion
certificate, flanked by Melissa Jest of the Preservation Alliance
(l.) and Partners’ Director of Training, Elizabeth Terry (r.).
and identifying next steps. The Baltimore Avenue Venue
Menu was printed and distributed in February 2010
(see page 18 for more on this coalition and brochure).
The Germantown Avenue collaborative hosted four
Germantown Speaks community events in November
2009, and is currently producing a short documentary
film on these conversations. (See page 15 for the full
story.)
Training
In the greater Philadelphia area, over 40 congregations
have recently graduated from, or are currently
participating in, New Dollars/New Partners training.
One round, sponsored by the Preservation Alliance
for Greater Philadelphia, concluded in late January;
a second class from the Presbytery of Philadelphia
graduated in early February. Another New Dollars
training round began this past winter, sponsored by the
Eastern United Methodist Conference.
With so many modules taking place in the past several
months, hundreds of new team members in the
Philadelphia area are identifying assets, community
partnerships and funding opportunities for their
historic congregations.

EXEMPLARY SOCIAL SERVICES
HOSTED BY SACRED PLACES
Breaking Bread at Broad Street Ministry
by Ann de Forest
In the boiler room in the back of an old urban church,
a barber with a graying goatee and a do-rag has set up a
small but serviceable “salon.” “I’ll make you look like a
prince and feel like a king,” the barber, Bruce, promises
as he drapes a towel around a customer’s neck. The tiny
space is alive with scents and sounds – the whirr of an
electric razor, the whoosh of running water, the lingering
aroma of aftershave – all accompanied by Bruce’s upbeat
conversation.
“Ain’t nobody touch my hair but him,” says a satisfied
customer, Charles, a Vietnam vet with a dapper
moustache who has lived on the street for years. He folds
a dollar and sticks it in a nearby tip jar. “Have a blessed
day,” says Bruce, already settling the next customer into
the chair. “And thank you very much for your tip.” At
Bruce’s salon, the haircuts are free. But Bruce knows that
the tip jar brings dignity to the transaction. “Being a man
myself, I know I feel much better when I’m paying for
it.”
Dignity is what distinguishes the services that Broad
Street Ministry (BSM) offers each week to the homeless
in Center City Philadelphia through its Breaking Bread
program. Every Thursday, just before 11:00, men and
women of varying ages and ethnicities gather outside the
grand neo-Gothic building on South Broad Street, just
across from the Kimmel Center, many lugging backpacks
or shopping bags stuffed with their worldly possessions.
The red doors swing open and those gathered step
down into a spacious dining hall where tables are set
for a banquet, with bright tablecloths and flowerpots
as centerpieces. Unlike many other feeding programs,
“there’s no standing in line,” says Paul, a regular. The
more than 200 homeless and hungry men and women
who come to Breaking Bread every Thursday sit down
at the tables to eat family-style, their lunch served by
volunteers. “It’s a good lunch,” says Paul. “It beats
everything else in the city.” Adds his friend Bob, “And
the people are so open and welcoming.”
“Vibrant,” is how Angelo Sgro, Executive Director of the
Bethesda Project, which provides housing and support
services to the chronically homeless throughout the city,
describes BSM’s outreach programs. “I have the utmost
respect for Bill Golderer [BSM’s Founder and Convening
Bruce, the resident barber and jack-of-all-trades at Broad
Street Ministry, takes care of a customer. Photo by Ashley
Collinson, courtesy of Broad Street Ministry.
Minister] and what he’s trying to do. He gets an idea in
his head and he doesn’t mull it over for too long. He goes
ahead and does it. Every city has someone who makes
things happen. Bill is one of those people.”
In 2005, Bill saw the potential in the boarded-up
Chambers-Wylie Memorial Presbyterian Church, a
vast, vacant edifice that interrupted the resurgence
of South Broad Street in Philadelphia. Today, the
year-old Breaking Bread program is an outgrowth of
BSM’s inclusive liturgy that draws young city dwellers,
suburbanites and homeless neighbors together for
worship every Sunday night. As program director Wendy
Gaynor says, “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we’re
here on Broad Street. This location confers a lot of
responsibility, and this building has a lot of issues, but
we love it and are grateful to work from here.”
In the same spirit of hospitality and creativity, Breaking
Bread has always been much more than a lunch program.
From the start, Wendy and her staff envisioned a true
ministry that “reaches out to those who are often
overlooked and aims to provide them with necessities
that are both tangible and relevant.” Those who come in
for a meal find ready access to a wide range of essential
services, from legal advice to mental health counseling to
assistance from the Benefits Bank, a program that helps
those in need “cut through red tape” and determine what
9 • Sacred Places • www.sacredplaces.org • Spring 2010

government benefits they are entitled to receive. The
Benefits Bank process takes patience, says Cy Schwartz,
a retired educator who runs the program as a volunteer.
“But sit with me for 45 minutes and you might find out
you’re eligible for $176 in food stamps.”
Michael Polembro, a resident nurse, is also on site every
week to perform health checks and monitor medications.
In keeping with Breaking Bread’s holistic approach to
meeting the needs of the homeless, Michael recently
introduced a pre-lunch meditation session that has
become very popular. One homeless man, who struggles
with anger management issues, credits meditation with
giving him “a longer fuse.”
The hair salon began as another practical service that,
with Bruce’s empathetic and ebullient personality,
soothes troubled men’s spirits as well. As he carefully
guides his razor across a man’s scalp, Bruce responds
to what he thinks each customer needs: cheerful patter,
advice or a listening ear. “I don’t just cut their hair,” he
says, “it’s a little ministry, too. I got you in the chair, you
can’t move,” he jokes, then turns serious. “Sometimes
when you get these men one on one, you break them
down. I say ‘Great. It’s all right to cry. It eases the soul.’”
In many ways, Bruce embodies Broad Street Ministry’s
participatory, holistic model for serving its urban
community. He was himself homeless when he first
came to a church service, drawn in by the choir’s
“heavenly voices.” Bill and Wendy recognized his talents
not only as a musician, but also as a trained carpenter
and plumber. By Bruce’s estimate, he has renovated
at least six rooms in the century-old church to keep
expanding and improving the services Broad Street
Ministry can offer the homeless, including an office for
a psychologist who comes in three times a week, and his
own cozy, welcoming salon in a corner of the basement
boiler room.
“It’s an amazing retrofitting of a space that wasn’t
designed to do anything but provide utilities for the
building,” says Cy, the Benefits Bank counselor, of
the back-room salon. In a space not much larger
than a coatroom, Bruce has set up a barber’s chair, a
shampooing station with sink, a lounge chair for waiting,
and a mirror, donated by a mosaic artist. Assisted
by Camille, a student at University of the Arts who
volunteers as hair washer, Bruce typically cuts “twentytwo
heads in two hours.”
As other programs that serve the homeless are being hit
by increased numbers and dwindling funding, Broad
Street Ministry aims to expand. The church’s location
and mission made it an ideal setting for one of Bethesda
Project’s winter “cafés, ” providing temporary shelter for
the most intransigent homeless in the coldest months of
the year. “If we hadn’t provided this space these people
would be out in this bitter cold and dying,” says Sgro.
“There’s something about [a church],” he adds, “that
gets people inside. And if you don’t get them inside,
you can’t work with them. We have placed a lot of people
from the cafés into more permanent housing.”
“It’s a dynamic, growing place,” says Cy Schwartz. In
addition to Breaking Bread, the church offers free
dinner after worship services on Sunday, and hosts
a monthly No Barriers Dinner, designed to bring
Philadelphia residents from all walks of life together for
a family-style meal. A plan is also in place to renovate
an ample but outdated kitchen, and Bruce hopes that
showers will be the next amenity he’s asked to build.
Right now, though, Bruce is sending a customer off with a
bracing splash of Aqua Velva. He might run into the same
guy later in the week, sitting on the street or camped
out on the Parkway. Wherever he sees his customers, he
greets them as friends. Freshly shampooed, hair well
trimmed, “they look,” he says, “like a million bucks. And
they’re feeling like a million bucks.”
The Exemplars Project
is funded by a grant from
the William Penn Foundation
Sacred Places • Spring 2010 • 10

UPDATE on Partners:
Texas Office
damage reports for each congregation, and architects
from across the country have conducted comprehensive
architectural assessments to help prioritize the repair
efforts. Through our relationship with the Galveston
Recovery Fund, eight congregations received $10,000
each to help pay for building repair costs, and six of the
ten congregations were featured as part of the Galveston
Historical Foundation’s annual Sacred Places tour this
past February. Currently, Partners is working with the
congregations through our New Dollars/New Partners
training program; Module I was hosted by Reedy Chapel
A.M.E Church in March.
Volunteers stand in front of a tightly packed truck, ready to
take supplies to Galveston. Photo by Donald Martin Evans.
Galveston Update
On September 13, 2008, Hurricane Ike made its final
landfall over Galveston, TX, with a Category 5-equivalent
storm surge and winds of at least 110 mph. Soon after,
at the request of the Texas Historical Commission,
Preservation Texas, and the Galveston Historical
Foundation, Partners’ Texas Office committed to working
with congregations impacted by the storm, and dedicated
funding and resources to assist them.
Help has come from outside Galveston as well. The Village
Church of Dallas donated its furniture and equipment for
those congregations that needed it, an effort that involved
help from the Office of Community Development of the
Baptist General Convention of Texas, which secured the
26-foot truck that transported the items, and Cornerstone
Baptist Church of Dallas, which coordinated volunteers to
load the goods and drive them to Galveston.
In January 2009, Partners announced planning grants
for ten congregations to help them assess the damage and
determine how to proceed with repairs and restoration.
Since then, Church Restoration Group has completed
Texas Advisory Board Members
James R. Nader, FAIA, Chair
Robert G. Adams, AIA
Susan Alanis
Kenneth Barr
Richard H. Bundy, AIA
Daniel G. Carey
Louise B. Carvey
Judith S. Cohen
Gerald Davis
Robert I. Fernandez
Glenn S. Forbes
Donald Gatzke, AIA
Krista Gebbia
Marty Leonard
Robert F. Pence, PE
Elaine Petrus
Barry Silverberg
The Rev. Brenda W. Weir
Dr. Gaynor Yancey
Ex Officio
Fernando Costa
11 • Sacred Places • www.sacredplaces.org • Spring 2010

Media support has been crucial as we shared the
congregations’ stories with others. KERA, the Dallas
National Public Radio affiliate, featured a commentary
on our work one year after the storm, and the “Our Faith”
section of the Galveston News, the Christian radio station
KCBI, and other North Texas outlets have showcased our
work and the needs that exist in Galveston.
Texas Office staff joined with the National Trust
for Historic Preservation and the Texas Historical
Commission to help with planning and presenting at each
organization’s annual conferences happening later this
year.
Disasters are usually highlighted for the damage and
destruction they bring. Yet our work in Galveston has
demonstrated that disasters can bring communities
together. This endeavor has taught many lessons, the
most important being that without the establishment
of strong partnerships, Partners could not have been so
effective. Many of our congregations had not had previous
opportunities to interact and yet, through our work
with them, we have seen new relationships develop and
opportunities open for collaboration.
And yet, there is still so much to do. Although all of
the congregations are back in their houses of worship,
there are significant repairs that need to be completed.
Computer labs that once served the community are not
functional. Kitchens that provided food for the less
fortunate need equipment. Partners is honored to be
a part of this opportunity to support a community as it
rebuilds, restores, and re-engages.
Galveston congregations affected by Hurricane Ike learn
asset-mapping strategies as part of New Dollars/New
Partners training.
Planning and Capital Grants
Partners made grants to four New Dollars graduates last
December:
Discovery United Methodist Church in Hutto received
a $10,000 grant from Partners, which will enable the
congregation to have an architectural assessment done so
they can move forward with their Narthex Tower/Belfry
Restoration Project.
St. Mary’s of the Assumption Catholic Church in Fort
Worth was awarded $10,000 for its Window Restoration
Project.
St. Paul United Methodist Church in Dallas was the
recipient of $5,000 to help offset costs for design services
related to their multi-million dollar renovation project.
Cochran Chapel United Methodist Church in Dallas was
given $5,000 for a professional assessment and project
planning.
Meetings and Workshops
Partners, the Texas Historical Commission, and the Texas
Association of Nonprofit Organizations sponsored a free
one-day workshop this past February, entitled “Modern
Manna: A Grant Writing Workshop.”
Sacred Places • Spring 2010 • 12

UPDATE on Partners:
Chicago Office
New Dollars/New Partners
Twelve congregations were chosen last fall to participate
in an interfaith New Dollars/New Partners training round,
sponsored by architect Nevin Hedlund, a Chicago
Advisory Board Member, who continues to attend
training modules and assist participating congregations.
The diverse group of historic congregations includes
the non-denominational Carr Memorial Chapel at the
Illinois Institute of Technology (designed by Mies van der
Rohe), Church of Our Saviour, Greater Englewood Parish
United Methodist Church, Hemenway United Methodist
Church (Evanston), Ingleside-Whitfield United Methodist
Church, Irving Park Baptist Church, Olivet Baptist Church,
Second Presbyterian Church, True Vine Missionary
Baptist Church, and Unity Temple (Oak Park).
The first day of training was held in November 2009
at Olivet Baptist Church with nearly 60 participants.
Hedlund introduced them to the process of assessing
buildings and completing conditions surveys. In January,
Luther Snow actively engaged participants in the assetmapping
process during the second module. The twelve
congregations will complete their training this spring,
hosted by Frank Lloyd Wright’s Unity Temple in Oak Park
and First United Methodist Church/Chicago Temple.
The Archdiocese of Chicago has generously sponsored a
second round of New Dollars training for twelve parishes,
scheduled to conclude in the spring of 2010. Catholic
Charities graciously opened their Chicago facility to
Partners, hosting each of the modules. Parishes currently
participating from Chicago include: Corpus Christi, Our
Lady of Peace, Queen of Angels, St. Benedict, St. Clare of
Interfaith New Dollars/New Partners trainee, Rev. Alice Greene
of Irving Park Baptist Church, participates in exercises during
Module IV at Unity Temple.
Chicago Advisory Board
Rolf Achilles, Co-Chair
Corlis Moody, Co-Chair
Barbara Abrajano
Rabbi Michael Balinsky
Joel D. Bookman
Chris Botti
Jay Braatz, Ed.D.
The Rev. John Canary
Bishop Demetrios
of Mokissos
Steve Edwards
Sunny Fischer
Suzanne Germann
Brian Goeken, AICP
Gunny Harboe, AIA
Nevin Hedlund, AIA
Marilyn Hennessy
Lisa Klein
Jody Kretzmann
The Rev. George A.
Lane, S.J.
Ken Marchetti
The Rev. James M.
Moody, Sr.
Michael P. Mosher, Esq.
Andrew Perlman
Joan Pomaranc
David Sauerman
Montefalco, St. James, St. John Berchmans, St. Mary, St.
Matthias, St. Philip Neri, Mary Queen of Heaven (Cicero),
and Mundelein Seminary (Mundelein).
Workshops
The Chicago Office has offered numerous programs for
the public since its first pilot workshop in September
2009, with an average of two-to-three events per month.
The Chicago Office partnered with local architects,
engineers, restoration specialists, architectural historians
and attorneys to present on specialized topics. TGRWA
Structural Engineers and Nevin Hedlund Architects have
sponsored these events, making the workshops accessible
to the public free of charge. Kevin Wilson, principal
at TGRWA, presented “How to Work with a Structural
Engineer” in January, followed by architect Dante
Domenella, who led a discussion on “Energy Conservation
and Sustainability.” In February, Chicago Advisory
Board members Rolf Achilles and Michael Mosher
presented workshops on stained glass and the legal issues
experienced by religious not-for-profits in historic
buildings. Achilles and Mosher continued presentations
in March, exploring Chicago’s historic relics and art,
and further exploring legal compliance issues that
congregations face.
Numerous technical workshops have been planned for
the spring of 2010 at historic religious buildings, many of
which are considered to be icons of Chicago architectural
history – including Quinn Chapel, Second Presbyterian
Church, Fourth Presbyterian Church, St. Philip Neri,
and St. John Cantius. Future topics include “Revisiting
Chicago’s Historic Synagogues,” which will be held at the
renowned KAM Isaiah Israel Temple and led by author
Robb Packer; a continuation of the legal series, “Managing
the Space of Your Sacred Places”; and “Managing Your
Building Renovation Project,” which will be presented
13 • Sacred Places • www.sacredplaces.org • Spring 2010

y Professional Alliance member Dan Ruzic of Chicago
Project Management.
Later this season, the Chicago Office will be offering an
enrichment lecture series covering a wide range of issues.
Ticket information will be available online on Partners’
website and Facebook page, as well as on the Chicago
Office blog at www.sacredplaceschicago.blogspot.com.
Expanded Programming
The Chicago Scroll Project is a new program designed
to document the rich heritage of Chicago’s historic
congregations. Clergy and lay leaders will be interviewed
and encouraged to share their experiences as members of
congregations that worship in historic religious buildings.
An architectural component will be incorporated by
interviewing local architects experienced in working with
historic religious structures.
Historic preservation, journalism and film students from
Creighton University, Columbia College, the School of
the Art Institute of Chicago, and the University of Chicago
will assist with the project, giving them an opportunity
to demonstrate artistic creativity, build their portfolios,
and document the rich heritage of Chicago’s historic
congregations. Short films, produced by the students, will
be made publicly available on social media outlets such as
YouTube.
Also starting this spring, Partners will provide educational
opportunities to students in fifth through eighth grades.
Working in collaboration with faculty from the school
of St. Mary of the Woods (a Catholic parish from the
northwest side of Chicago), a sixth-grade class will tour
Quinn Chapel, Second Presbyterian Church and Holy
Family Church, then use digital technology in conjunction
with traditional lesson plans to learn about the three key
aspects of each sacred place: its heritage, its faith, and its
community.
New People
The Chicago Office is pleased to welcome Elizabeth Blasius
as an independent consultant working with Partners’
team. Elizabeth is a graduate of the School of the Art
Institute of Chicago’s Historic Preservation program
and has worked on numerous projects with the City of
Chicago and the National Society of the Colonial Dames of
America.
Also helping with various projects and services are seven
new interns and volunteers: Katie Chiu, John Michael
Jurica, Lisa Napoles, Kyle O’Reilly, Jessica Ross, Jon Vogel,
and Christine Whims.
Sacred Places • Spring 2010 • 14

FEATURE STORY
The Commercial Corridors Project
This event at First Presbyterian
marked the start of a series of
intergenerational oral history events
known as Germantown Speaks that
emerged from Partners for Sacred
Places’ Commercial Corridors
Project. Over the course of five
community conversations last fall
and winter, more than 50 older
residents shared their experiences of
life in Germantown with nine local
teenagers. Different in age, race
and gender, their stories joined to
shape a shared, nuanced experience
of Germantown Avenue in the 20th
century—although they never did
agree on what counted as “recent.”
Partners’ work with historic
congregations has continually
evolved since its founding 21 years
ago, expanding from occasional
technical assistance to its formal
New Dollars/New Partners training
Students, neighbors, and
Germantown Speaks
organizers gathered for the
fourth intergenerational
conversation, held at Center
in the Park in Germantown.
A RICHLY STORIED AVENUE
by Molly Lester, Grants and Program Director, Philadelphia Regional Fund
This past November, in a room overlooking Vernon Park in northwest Philadelphia, five Germantown High School students joined
eleven senior citizens around a table at The First Presbyterian Church in Germantown. Just one year earlier—almost to the day—
everyone in the room had witnessed the election of President Barack Obama and today, they sat musing about the campaign stop
he made to the park, only a few steps away.
“Did any celebrities visit Germantown when you were growing up here” one student, Eli, asked of the older faces across from him.
“I remember John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon coming through during the election of 1960,” an elderly woman recalled.
At this, another woman at the table sat up straight, waving her hand dismissively. “Oh, but that was recent!”
Eli was too stunned to scribble anything in the notebook in front of him.
with clusters of congregations. In
the winter of 2009, with funding
from the Citi Foundation, Partners
launched a new initiative to target
geographic clusters of congregations,
bringing them together with
local organizations, institutions
and community development
corporations to define shared agendas
and revitalization opportunities for
their neighborhoods.
15 • Sacred Places • www.sacredplaces.org • Spring 2010

Throughout the planning process,
Germantown Speaks benefited
from Cliveden’s involvement, but
particularly from the site’s ties to a
larger project called “Germantown
Works,” a youth employment
initiative. This relationship tied
the congregations into a much
larger economic development
initiative, and allowed the coalition
to draw on a much broader network,
which included Germantown High
School. The coalition was able to
make the case that journalism and
history students could gain valuable
interviewing and research skills
through this program.
Local artist Elan Geppner films the first Germantown Speaks event, held at The
First Presbyterian Church in Germantown.
The Germantown Avenue initiative
offered clear opportunities for
collaboration among several historic
congregations and interested
neighbors in Northwest Philadelphia,
including The First Presbyterian
Church in Germantown, First United
Methodist Church of Germantown
and St. Luke’s Episcopal Church of
Germantown, along with Cliveden
of the National Trust (a National
Historic Landmark site), the Lutheran
Theological Seminary of Philadelphia,
and Neighborhood Interfaith
Movement.
With nationally-recognized
consultant Luther Snow engaged
as an asset-based community
development facilitator, the
project’s various participants
identified dozens of assets in the
community, from existing networks
of neighborhood leaders to strong
community programs to the historic
sacred places themselves. From
these brainstorming sessions,
compelling initiatives for sustaining
and preserving the neighborhood’s
historic sacred places began to
emerge, including a pressing need
to collect a 20th-century history of
Germantown Avenue before the oldest
residents pass on.
In April 2009, the Germantown
Avenue coalition was given additional
impetus when the Preservation
Alliance for Greater Philadelphia
announced a Neighborhood
Preservation Project seed grant
competition, as part of its Citywide
Preservation Conference. Spurred
by this opportunity, the Germantown
Avenue collaborative applied for
funding for Germantown Speaks, and
were rewarded with one of just two
$1,500 first place prizes.
The initiative’s appeal lay in
documenting an overlooked chapter
of Germantown’s 300-plus year
history, and it also offered a way for
the participating congregations to
build on the lessons of New Dollars
training by opening their historic
buildings to the community, thus
connecting with the youth and elders
in their midst by recognizing the
contributions and stories of both
generations. Finally, and perhaps
most importantly in a competition
sponsored by a preservation
organization, Germantown Speaks
offered the project’s historic site and
sacred places a means of telling their
own stories.
Germantown High School teachers
Marie Connaghan and Elisabeth
D’Alessandro were invaluable
guides through the maze of waivers,
scheduling and administrative
hurdles. By enlisting their support
early in the process, the group was
able to address the school’s concerns
and engage interested, intelligent
students in the project. Dr. David
Young (of Cliveden), the Rev. Dr.
Katie Day (of the Lutheran Theological
Seminary) and Ira Luke (of Historic
Germantown Preserved) trained the
students in gathering oral histories, as
well as how to address sensitive topics
and foster active conversations.
The congregations also played a
vital role in shaping Germantown
Speaks. The commitment of their
clergy and lay leadership throughout
the planning process was a clear
extension of their congregations’
decades of community engagement.
Their participation lent to the project
considerable resources of volunteer
time, building space, and in-kind
donations—further evidence of the
public value of the historic sacred
places in Germantown.
The Germantown Speaks events came
on the heels of a six-day transit strike
in Philadelphia. For most of the student
interviewers, it was a troublesome
Continued on page 17
Sacred Places • Spring 2010 • 16

A RICHLY STORIED AVENUE (cont.)
A Germantown High School student
reflects on the Germantown Speaks
events at a follow-up meeting.
inconvenience. For the older participants,
however, it was a mild echo of the transit
strike of 1944—one of the few memories
that surfaced in all four Germantown
Speaks events.
Facing a labor shortage during World
War II, the Philadelphia Transit
Corporation promoted several African
Americans to motormen and conductors
in 1944. In response, nearly 10,000 white
employees revolted, refusing to operate
their vehicles for a full week. The walkout
threatened to shut down war production
in the city, prompting President Franklin
D. Roosevelt to send federal troops to
intervene. All of the Germantown Speaks
participants remember soldiers with guns
posted behind the drivers on buses and
trolleys throughout the city.
One high school student was still
incredulous about this incident several
weeks later, saying, “I didn’t believe
the story of the PTC strike the first time I
heard it.”
Segregation and race were
undercurrents in many of the
reflections—such as when one
Germantown High School student
learned that her cheerleading squad
had been among the last sports teams
to integrate—but the conversation did
not shy away from the complexities
or the difficulties of the subject.
Lamont, a senior at Germantown
High, mused later, “Every time they
talked about segregation, it wasn’t like
a bad thing. It was weird. I expected
it to be uncomfortable, but in a way,
they were sad when [people] were
brought together….Back then, people
stuck together because they were set
apart. Today, everyone has freedom,
so everyone’s going to the beat of their
own drum.”
Lamont, like many of the student
interviewers, offered this reflection
up as his own experience in
Germantown. At each of the
Germantown Speaks events, a similar
pattern emerged. Students and
seniors began every afternoon or
evening session sitting as strangers
across from each other. Then, as they
settled into their conversation and
their surroundings, the tentative
questions and the broad answers
shifted into dynamic, personal
dialogue.
Just as the project offered greater
access to the recent past for students
and seniors alike, Germantown Speaks
also opened the doors of the Avenue’s
sacred places to populations that had
not previously experienced them.
For many of the students, this was
their first time in these churches,
despite attending school or a church
of their own only blocks away. Their
work outside of the classroom was
therefore also a lesson in social and
architectural history.
At First United Methodist Church
of Germantown (across the street
from the high school), they met
on the site of the home of Daniel
Pastorius, leading signer of the first
written protest against slavery in
1688; at St. Luke’s, they learned of
the 1968 merger between the black
congregation of St. Barnabas and the
white congregation of St. Luke’s; and
at The First Presbyterian Church in
Germantown, their interviews were
framed by a series of rare Violet
Oakley murals.
Given the sensitivity and complexity
of these stories, the collaborative
has turned now to careful planning
about next steps for the project.
The main record of the events will
be a documentary—filmed and
edited by local artist Elan Gepner—
on the project and its insights on
Germantown as a community.
Over the next several months, and
through more community events, the
Germantown Avenue coalition hopes
to use this film to reinforce the sense
of shared experience that has been so
evident throughout the project.
Germantown Speaks was designed to
engage local students in historical
research and interviewing, to connect
historic congregations with local
youth and senior citizens, and to unite
Germantown Avenue’s congregations
and community institutions through
a collaborative initiative. This pilot
program for Partners’ Commercial
Corridors Project has been a natural
outgrowth of our asset-based work
with congregations and communities.
For the historic site and sacred places
involved, it has affirmed their role as
neighborhood anchors not only in the
past 200 years in Germantown, but in
residents’ living memory as well.
The future possibilities for
Germantown Speaks in this Northwest
Philadelphia community will continue
to take shape, but the Commercial
Corridors Project already offers
a model for congregations and
communities nationwide to foster
similar dialogues. As the project
progresses, the congregations hope to
build on Germantown Speaks by telling
their own stories to new audiences,
increasing their visitation, and
strengthening their economic impact
by establishing new partnerships for
neighborhood revitalization.
17 • Sacred Places • www.sacredplaces.org • Spring 2010

The Commercial Corridors Project
BALTIMORE AVENUE VENUE MENU
The historic houses of worship along Baltimore Avenue in West Philadelphia anchor their broader community, reflecting
the neighborhood’s history, development and present identity. As part of Partners’ pilot Commercial Corridors Project, a
coalition of congregations and neighborhood groups joined with University City District, the local special services district,
to design the Baltimore Avenue Venue Menu, a brochure that graphically illustrates that the Avenue’s historic sacred
places are open and available for public use.
In May 2009, the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia’s Neighborhood Preservation Project gave the Baltimore
Avenue coalition a $1,000 seed grant to support the production of the brochure — one of only four groups to receive
an award. Design services for the brochure were donated by the University City District, and each coalition member
contributed toward printing costs. The Venue Menu, printed and distributed this past February, will promote these
neighborhood landmarks to new audiences, thereby building a broader base of support for the preservation and active use
of West Philadelphia’s community-serving sacred places.
Map places each site within
the context of Baltimore
Avenue and correlates to each
building’s listing inside the
brochure
Text gives a brief
history of the
neighborhood and
suggests creative
ways to use these
sacred places
Graphic icons
show amenities
of each site and
capacity of each
rental space
Photos highlight
the architecture
of each building
Testimonial
from current
building tenant
Contact information
specifically for arranging
building rental
Sacred Places • Spring 2010 • 18

INFORMATION CLEARINGHOUSE FEATURE
RESOURCES FOR “GREENING”
YOUR SACRED SPACE
Going “green” is a hot trend these days, with the word
used to describe everything from clothes to paper towels
to cleaning supplies to buildings. Though it may seem
like historic buildings fall outside the realm of “green
building,” in reality, the greenest building is often the
one already built. And while preservation and energy
efficiency might appear to be at cross purposes, there are
many steps that those who use or live in historic buildings
can take to reduce their energy use, and by extension,
their energy costs. From a purely economical point of
view, this makes utmost sense. But the benefits extend
beyond the pocketbook: using less energy makes sense
from an environmental standpoint, and for many faith
traditions, it make sense from a theological perspective as
well.
One way of achieving long-term savings is to learn how
simple renovations or changes in operation can make a
building more energy efficient and create savings. There
are many organizations that provide educational training,
professional resources, and free online guidebooks to
making your sacred place’s energy bills more affordable
through environmental awareness and building practice.
The following websites offer advice on becoming greener,
each with specific advice for congregations and faith
groups nationwide.
EnergyStar – A joint program of the EPA and the
US Department of Energy. This site provides a
wealth of free information and technical support
specifically for congregations, including a howto
guide for analyzing and upgrading your facility
and case studies of congregations who have won
the EnergyStar Award for excellence in energy
efficiency. www.energystar.gov
Interfaith Coalition on Energy – Their mission
is to inspire congregations to reduce the costs
of operating their facilities by using less energy,
purchasing energy at a lower cost, and anticipating
and preventing problems with mechanical and
electrical systems within their buildings. Website
features articles and newsletters on energyrelated
topics, as well as a list of ICE publications
available to purchase. www.interfaithenergy.com
National Interfaith Power and Light –
Mobilizing a religious response to global warming
through the promotion of renewable energy,
energy efficiency and conservation. Website
features a “Cool Congregations Calculator,”
designed to estimate your congregation’s carbon
footprint, allowing you to look at the best places to
reduce your footprint and become energy smart.
http://interfaithpowerandlight.org
Web of Creation – Ecology resources to transform
faith communities and society. Website includes
information on the Green Seminary Initiative and
the Green Congregation Program.
www.webofcreation.org
19 • Sacred Places • www.sacredplaces.org • Spring 2010

PROFESSIONAL ALLIANCE SPOTLIGHT
The Art of Glass, Inc.
Kathy Jordan, a longtime Partners’ Professional
Alliance member, opened her studio, the Art of
Glass, Inc., in 1987. Specializing in stained glass
conservation, restoration, and historic paint
replication, Kathy explains, “We have worked on
large cathedrals and small country churches. Our
craftsmanship, quality and dedication [are] given to
every project we work on. More importantly, we have
a well-documented reputation for projects that were
a success and completed on schedule.” Recently,
thanks to Kathy’s skills and expertise, the firm gained
something of a new specialty – that of miracle worker.
On the afternoon of October 23, 2004, a devastating
fire swept through Saint Bernard’s Episcopal Church,
an 1890s Gothic Revival building in Bernardsville,
NJ. When the smoke finally cleared it was plain that
the building was in ruins; shards of stained glass,
which exploded from the intensity of the fire’s heat,
lay scattered across the church lawn
Parish members quickly proceeded with restoration
plans, including the re-creation and repair of a sixfoot
oculus window – the focal point of the church
– created for the congregation in 1898 by Clayton
and Bell, a prestigious English stained glass firm.
Kathy recalls, “The devastation was not isolated
within the walls of the sanctuary. I could see it on
their faces. Tears flowed freely when they spoke of
the great oculus window and what it meant to them.
The Art of Glass, Inc.
316 Media Station Road
Media, PA 19063
Office: (610) 891-7813
Fax: (610) 891-0150
They needed reassurance that I could recreate their
window. Their passion was my motivation.” In order
to restore the window, Kathy needed to pull together,
like a giant jigsaw puzzle, a multitude of pieces in
order to reconstruct the whole picture.
The first step was to obtain photographs of the
window, but the church didn’t have any in its property
records. Kathy tells the story, “A plea went out to the
congregation for photographs of the oculus window.
I received dozens of wedding photos of brides and
grooms with this tiny postage-sized window off in the
distance.” From the photos, Kathy could see what was
in the window, but she still lacked the color palette,
which would reveal itself from an unusual source.
After the fire, crews arrived to clean up and recover
whatever they could. Salvaging hundreds of glass
shards seemed impractical so they were gathered in a
box for disposal. Lead architect Annabelle Radcliffe-
Trenner, who thought Kathy might be able to use the
“trash,” stopped the crew from throwing away the
pieces of lead matrix and glass, and delivered them
instead in the cardboard box to the Art of Glass.
Kathy said that when she opened the box, her initial
reaction was “What have I promised” However,
Left to right, below: The shards of glass and lead matrix pour out of the cardboard box they arrived in. Like a giant jigsaw
puzzle, the myriad pieces are fitted together to reassemble as much of the original window as possible. Kathy at work on her
light table, painting in details of the window; a drawing of the oculus can be seen on the left in the background.
Sacred Places • Spring 2010 • 20

PROFESSIONAL ALLIANCE SPOTLIGHT
(cont.)
she came to see the remnants as “a box full of
clues.” The original glass provided a reference
for the painting technique and pigment color of
the window, and by combing through the shards,
cleaning them and fitting them together, Kathy
was able to painstakingly reconstruct sections of
it. Although she was able to fabricate much of the
window from original glass, she also needed to fill
in the missing components by matching new glass
to the old, and painting in the details.
Over the course of several months, Kathy and her
staff succeeded in re-creating the Clayton and
Bell window, and while the church was still being
rebuilt, it was installed back above the altar – a spot
it had held for over 100 years. With tears in his eyes,
the priest told Kathy that the return of the oculus
window was a monumental day for the church.
After four years of restoration and rebuilding,
Saint Bernard’s Episcopal Church was reopened
and dedicated on Easter Sunday 2008. Kathy says,
“When I saw the oculus window in its glory for
the first time, it was very emotional for me. You
could see the pride on the faces of the masons,
carpenters, roofers, builders and all the people
involved in restoring the church and its windows.”
The stunning Clayton and Bell six-foot-wide oculus window
from St. Bernard’s Episcopal Church, after a months-long
restoration by the Art of Glass, Inc., which required Kathy
Jordan to sift through glass and metal shards to piece
together what was left of the original window, and then
painstakingly recreate what had been lost by a devastating
fire.
One valuable lesson learned from the St.
Bernard’s experience is the importance of
record keeping in being able to recreate
or restore stained glass windows. Kathy
Jordan says, “I cannot impress strongly
enough that congregations should
document their stained glass windows.
Photography should include interior
and exterior shots, in reflected as well
as transmitted light.” Be sure to keep
the photographs in a fireproof vault or
off site, to avoid losing this key record
in case of a devastating fire. She adds,
“Remember that if a church is faced with
vandalism or fire, try to salvage as much
of the window as possible.” The oculus
window of St. Bernard’s is proof of just
what can be accomplished with glass
shards in the hands of a skilled expert!
21 • Sacred Places • www.sacredplaces.org • Spring 2010

PROFESSIONAL ALLIANCE DIRECTORY
BECOME A MEMBER OF THE
PROFESSIONAL ALLIANCE
Membership in the Professional Alliance is a wonderful way for firms specializing in the restoration of historic religious
properties to increase their visibility among a national audience of clergy, congregational leaders and preservationists. For
information on membership benefits, please contact Rana Gidumal McNamara at (215) 567-3234, ext. 15, or at
rmcnamara@sacredplaces.org, or visit www.sacredplaces.org/professionals.html.
Membership does not constitute endorsement.
PATRONS
The UNICO System
Saint Louis, MO
(314) 481-9000
www.unicosystem.com
Levine & Company
Roof Consulting &
Architectural
Conservation
Ardmore, PA
(610) 642-4081
jlevine@levineco.net
ACCESSIBLITY
Clayton Acoustics Group
Carmel, NY
(845) 225-7515
www.claytonacoustics.com
ACOUSTICS CONSULTING
Clayton Acoustics Group
Carmel, NY
(845) 225-7515
www.claytonacoustics.com
ARCHITECTS
AltusWorks, Inc.
Chicago, IL
(773) 545-1870
www.altusworks.com
Atkin Olshin Schade Architects
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 925-7812
www.aosarchitects.com
Barba + Wheelock Architecture,
Preservation + Design
Portland, ME
(207) 772-2722
www.barbawheelock.com
Jay Bright Architect
New Haven, CT
(203) 776-0798
Jaybrightarchitect@aya.yale.edu
Bill Brown, AIA
Professional Corp.
Colorado Springs, CO
(719) 473-8138
www.billbrownaia.com
Brawer Hauptman, Architects
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 829-0084
www.brawerhauptman.com
James Hudson Crissman, FAIA
Watertown, MA
(617) 923-3010
www.jhcfaia.com
Farewell Mills Gatsch
Architects, LLC
Princeton, NJ
(609) 452-1777
www.fmg-arch.com
David E. Gall, AIA
Winston-Salem, NC
(336) 773-1213
(336) 773-1298
www.davidegall.com
Griffin Architects, P.A.
Asheville, NC
(828) 274-5979
www.griffinarchitectspa.com
Harboe Architects
Chicago, IL
(312) 977-0333
www.harboearch.com
James Hundt, Architect
Clifton Park, NY
(518) 371-0832
www.jameshundt.com
Jaeger, Nickola & Associates, Ltd.
Park Ridge, IL
(847) 692-6166
www.jaeger-nickola.com
Kelly/Maiello Inc.
Architects & Planners
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 546-0800
www.kmarchitects.com
Kimmel Bogrette
Architecture + Site
Conshohocken, PA
(610) 834-7805
www.kimmel-bogrette.com
Kise Straw & Kolodner
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 790-1050
www.ksk1.com
K+K Associates, LLP
Arlington, TX
(817) 781-3044
www.kpluskassociates.com
Levy Associates Architects
Houston, TX
(713) 528-2912
levyarch@swbell.net
McBride Kelley Baurer
Chicago, IL
(312) 266-7400
www.mkbdesign.net
John Milner Architects, Inc.
Chadds Ford, PA
(610) 388-0111
www.johnmilnerarchitects.com
Menders Torrey & Spencer, Inc.
Boston, MA
(617) 227-1477
www.mendersarchitects.com
Craig Morrison, AIA
New York, NY
(212) 513-0409
craigmm@concentric.net
Rene Robert Mueller, R.A.
Bronx, NY
(718) 432-2510
www.rene-mueller.net
Joseph K. Oppermann,
Architect, P.A.
Winston - Salem, NC
(336) 721-1711
joskopp@mindspring.com
Sacred Places • Spring 2010 • 22

PROFESSIONAL ALLIANCE DIRECTORY (cont.)
ARCHITECTS (cont.)
Renaissance Art, Restoration &
Architecture
San Diego, CA
(619) 677-5764
www.architecture-restoration.com
SAAarchitects
Mark D. Shermeyer, AIA
York, PA
(717) 843-3200
www.SAAarchitects.com
Marianna Thomas Architects
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 386-0200
www.mtarchitects.net
TranSystems/DPK&A Architects
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 627-2700
www.transystems.com
Voith & Mactavish Architects
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 545-4544
www.voithandmactavish.com
Volz & Associates
Austin, TX
(512) 476-0433
www.volzassociates.com
BELLS
Christoph Paccard Bellfoundries
Charleston, SC
(800) 849-6670
www.christophpaccard.com
The Verdin Company
Cincinnati, OH
(800) 543-0488
www.verdin.com
BUILDING CONSERVATION AND
PRESERVATION CONSULTING
AltusWorks, Inc.
Chicago, IL
(773) 545-1870
www.altusworks.com
Barba + Wheelock Architecture,
Preservation + Design
Portland, ME
(207) 772-2722
www.barbawheelock.com
Jay Bright Architect
New Haven, CT
(203) 776-0798
Jaybrightarchitect@aya.yale.edu
Chicago Project Management
Western Springs, IL
(708) 267-7042
www.ChicagoProjectManagement.com
James Hudson Crissman, FAIA
Watertown, MA
(617) 923-3010
www.jhcfaia.com
W. S. Cumby, Inc.
Springfield, PA
(610) 328-5353
www.cumby.com
deGruchy Masonry
Restoration, Inc.
Quakertown, PA
(215) 536-4482
www.degruchymasonry.com
Felix Chavez, Inc.
New York, NY
718-729-9003
www.felixchavezinc.com
Hanson General Contracting, Inc.
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 483-8338
www.hgcinc.biz
Harboe Architects
Chicago, IL
(312) 977-0333
www.harboearch.com
Ed Kamper Associates
Caldwell, NJ
(973) 228-3945
Kelly/Maiello Inc.
Architects & Planners
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 546-0800
www.kmarchitects.com
Kimmel Bogrette
Architecture + Site
Conshohocken, PA
(610) 834-7805
www.kimmel-bogrette.com
Kronenberger & Sons
Restoration Inc.
Middletown, CT
(860) 347-4600
www.kronenbergersons.com
Levine & Company Roof
Consulting & Architectural
Conservation
Ardmore, PA
(610) 642-4081
jlevine@levineco.net
Menders Torrey & Spencer, Inc.
Boston MA
(617) 227-1477
www.mendersarchitects.com
Milner + Carr Conservation
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 763-8090
www.milnercarrconservation.com
Joseph K. Oppermann,
Architect, P.A.
Winston-Salem, NC
(336) 721-1711
joskopp@mindspring.com
Renaissance Art,
Restoration & Architecture
San Diego, CA
(619) 677-5764
www.architecture-restoration.com
SAAarchitects
Mark D. Shermeyer, AIA
York, PA
(717) 843-3200
www.SAAarchitects.com
Simpson Gumpertz & Heger
San Francisco, CA
(415) 495-3700
www.sgh.com
TranSystems/DPK&A Architects
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 627-2700
www.transystems.com
William J. Stivale, Jr.
New York, NY
(212) 675-5605
buildingconservator1@prodigy.net
The Sullivan Company
Essington, PA
(610) 521-7676
www.thesullivancompany.com
Marianna Thomas Architects
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 386-0200
www.mtarchitects.net
Vertical Access
Ithaca, NY
(607) 257-4049
www.vertical-access.com
CEMETERY AND GRAVESTONE
PRESERVATION
Church Restoration Group
Cranberry Township, PA
(877) 403-8569
www.churchrestoration.com
Milner + Carr Conservation
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 763-8090
www.milnercarrconservation.com
Mosko Cemetery Monument
Services
Hanover, PA
(866) 434-7176
23 • Sacred Places • www.sacredplaces.org • Spring 2010

obertmosko@embargmail.com
(215) 753-8808
www.ArtConservatorsAlliance.com
www.jumpstartgrowth.com
CONGREGATIONAL AND
COMMUNITY RENEWAL
Luther K. Snow
Decorah, IA
(563) 382-6386
www.luthersnow.com
CONTRACTORS
Church Restoration Group
Cranberry Township, PA
(877) 403-8569
www.churchrestoration.com
W. S. Cumby, Inc.
Springfield , PA
(610) 328-5353
www.cumby.com
Hanson General Contracting, Inc.
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 483-8338
www.hgcinc.biz
Kronenberger & Sons
Restoration Inc.
Middletown, CT
(860) 347-4600
www.kronenbergersons.com
Masonry Preservation Group, Inc.
Merchantville, NJ
(856) 663-4158
www.masonrypreservationgroup.com
The Sullivan Company
Essington, PA
(610) 521-7676
www.thesullivancompany.com
Unkefer Brothers Construction
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 563-3615
www.unkefer.com
DECORATIVE FINISHES/
INTERIOR FURNISHINGS
Bloomsburg Carpet Industries
Bloomsburg, PA
(404) 408-1773
www.bloomsburgcarpet.com
Conrad Schmitt Studios Inc.
New Berlin, WI
(800) 969-3033
www.conradschmitt.com
Conservation of Sculpture &
Objects Studio, Inc.
Forrest Part, IL
(773) 594-1451
www.csosinc.com
Steven B. Erisoty Painting
Conservation
Philadelphia, PA
Felix Chavez, Inc.
New York, NY
(718) 729-9003
www.felixchavezinc.com
Griffin Architects, P.A.
Asheville, NC
(828) 274-5979
www.griffinarchitectspa.com
Jaeger, Nickola & Associates, Ltd.
Park Ridge, IL
(847) 692-6166
www.jaeger-nickola.com
John Canning & Co., Ltd.
Cheshire, CT
(203) 272-9868
www.canning-studios.com
Rambusch Decorating Co., Inc.
Jersey City, NJ
(201) 333-2525
www.rambusch.com
St. Jude Liturgical Studio
Havertown, PA
(610) 789-1300
www.stjudeliturgicalarts.com
Sumberac Plastering and Painting
Ridgefield Park, NJ
(201) 883-0899
ENGINEERING
Larsen and Landis
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 232-7207
www.larsenlandis.com
FLOORING
Bloomsburg Carpet Industries
Bloomsburg, PA
(404) 408-1773
www.bloomsburgcarpet.com
FUNDRAISING CONSULTATION
Bloom Metz Consulting
Wilmington, DE
(302) 584-1592
www.BloomMetz.com
The Breton Group
Grand Rapids, MI
(616) 975-9907
www.bretongroup.com
MacIntyre Associates, Inc.
Kennett Square, PA
(888) 575-0903
macintyre@aol.com
Jump Start Growth
Mount Rainier, MD
(301) 758-3410
The Rev. Dr. Nancy Muth
Glenside, PA
(215) 843-8811
nmuth@aol.com
GREEN BUILDING/DESIGN
W. S. Cumby, Inc.
Springfield, PA
(610) 328-5353
www.cumby.com
Kelly/Maiello Inc.
Architects & Planners
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 546-0800
www.kmarchitects.com
McBride Kelley Baurer
Chicago, IL
(312) 266-7400
www.mkbdesign.net
Voith & Mactavish Architects
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 545-4544
www.voithandmactavish.com
HEATING AND COOLING SYSTEMS
The UNICO System
Saint Louis, MO
(314) 481-9000
www.unicosystem.com
LIGHTING DESIGN/
RESTORATION
Griffin Architects, P.A.
Asheville, NC
(828) 274-5979
www.griffinarchitectspa.com
Lumenelle, Inc.
Marengo, IL
815-529-5483
www.lumenelle.com
Rambusch Decorating Co., Inc.
Jersey City, NJ
(201) 333-2525
www.rambusch.com
LITURGICAL ARTS
Botti Studio of
Architectural Arts, Inc.
Evanston, IL
(847) 869-5933
www.bottistudio.com
Conrad Schmitt Studios Inc.
New Berlin, WI
(800) 969-3033
www.conradschmitt.com
St. Jude Liturgical Studio
Havertown, PA
Sacred Places • Spring 2010 • 24

PROFESSIONAL ALLIANCE DIRECTORY (cont.)
(610) 789-1300
www.stjudeliturgicalarts.com
www.conradschmitt.com
MASONRY RESTORATION
Francis J. Atkinson & Sons
Steeplejack
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 677-2747
(215) 673-4668
www.atkinsonsteeplejack.com
deGruchy Masonry
Restoration, Inc.
Quakertown, PA
(215) 536-4482
www.degruchymasonry.com
Facility Specialists
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 732-7507
(215) 546-9160
www.facspecs.com
Imhoff Company, Inc.
Parsippany, NJ
(973) 983-8028
(973) 299-1552
www.imhoffcompany.com
Keystone Waterproofing
Greensburg, PA
(800) 888-5924
www.keystonewaterproofing.com
Knapp Masonry LLC
Magnolia, NJ
(856) 297-6576
www.knappmasonry.com
Masonry Preservation Group, Inc.
Merchantville, NJ
(856) 663-4158
www.masonrypreservationgroup.com
Premier Building Restoration, Inc.
Erdenheim, PA
(215) 233-4444
www.premierbuildingrestoration.com
Raynal Studios, Inc.
Natural Bridge Station, VA
(800) 305-0959
www.raynalstudios.com
MASTER PLANNING
David E. Gall, AIA
Winston-Salem, NC
(336) 773-1213
(336) 773-1298
www.davidegall.com
John Milner Architects, Inc.
Chadds Ford, PA
(610) 388-0111
www.johnmilnerarchitects.com
25 • Sacred Places • Spring 2010
ORGAN RESTORATION
Patrick J. Murphy
& Associates, Inc.
Stowe, PA
(610) 970-9817
www.pjmorgans.com
PLASTERING AND
PLASTER RESTORATION
Sumberac Plastering and Painting
Ridgefield Park, NJ
(201) 883-0899
RENOVATION
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Chicago Project Management
Western Springs, IL
(708) 267-7042
www.ChicagoProjectManagement.
com
ROOFING CONTRACTORS/
CONSULTING
Imhoff Company, Inc.
Parsippany, NJ
(973) 983-8028
(973) 299-1552
www.imhoffcompany.com
Levine & Company, Inc.
Ardmore, PA
(610) 642-4081
jlevine@levineco.net
Renaissance Roofing
Rockford, IL
(815) 547-1725
(815) 547-1425
www.claytileroof.com
STAINED GLASS
RESTORATION/CONSULTATION
American Consultation on
Stained Glass
Enid, OK
(800) 821-9595
www.americanstainedglass.org
The Art of Glass Inc.
Media, PA
(610) 891-7813
www.theartofglassinc.com
Botti Studio of Architectural
Arts, Inc.
Evanston, IL
(847) 869-5933
www.bottistudio.com
Conrad Schmitt Studios Inc.
New Berlin, WI
(800) 969-3033
Glass Heritage, Inc.
Davenport, IA
(877) 324-4300
www.glassheritage.com
J + R Lamb Studios, Inc.
Wyckoff, NJ
(201) 891-8585
(201) 891-8855
www.lambstudios.com
Pike Stained Glass Studio, Inc.
Rochester, NY
(585) 546-7570
vohara@frontiernet.net
Raynal Studios, Inc.
Natural Bridge Station, VA
(800) 305-0959
www.raynalstudios.com
Rohlf’s Stained &
Leaded Glass Studio, Inc.
Mount Vernon, NY
(800) 969-4106
www.rohlfstudio.com
Julie L. Sloan
Stained Glass Consultants
North Adams, MA
(413) 663-5512
www.jlsloan.com
Willet Hauser Architectural Glass
Winona, MN, and
Philadelphia, PA
(800) 533-3960
www.hauserglass.com
STEEPLE REPAIR
Francis J. Atkinson & Sons
Steeplejack
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 677-2747
(215) 673-4668
www.atkinsonsteeplejack.com
Keystone Waterproofing
Greensburg, PA
(800) 888-5924
www.keystonewaterproofing.com
Renaissance Roofing
Rockford, IL
(815) 547-1725
(815) 547-1425
www.claytileroof.com
TOWER CLOCKS
Christoph Paccard Bellfoundries
Charleston, SC
(800) 849-6670
www.christophpaccard.com

Sacred Places • Spring 2010 • 26