It’s 100 years down, and hopefully many more to go for the Community Church of East Williston, as the church’s centennial has spurred its congregation to prepare for the future.
The church, which is part of the East Williston Historic District and is on the National Register of Historic Places, received a $4,000 matching grant from The New York Landmarks Conservancy in June. The grant will help fund a building conditions survey to identify any possible future restoration or repair needs and secure competitive pricing for property insurance.
“The church building is an important part of the community,” said Mary Ellen Williams, the church board’s president. “As part of thinking about the next 100 years, we wanted to make sure that we were taking care of the building the way it needs to be taken care of.”
Williams said the non-denominational Protestant church has done routine maintenance, repairs and upgrades, but it wanted to seek a professional assessment on any special needs the old building might have in order to preserve it properly.
The grant came from the Landmark Conservancy’s Sacred Sites program, which supports religious institutions on Long Island through the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation.
“These buildings are very important anchors in their communities, and they’re there to serve,” said Colleen Heemeyer, the director of the Sacred Sites program. “These grants help religious institutions preserve their buildings so they can focus capital on serving their communities.”
“The Community Church is doing a great job in planning,” she added. “This document will help them understand their building better and know where to focus their capital.”
Williams said the church contacted the Landmark Conservancy’s Sacred Sites program earlier this year for help planning for its next century as the organization had provided the church with a different grant a few decades ago.
“The first question we had was, ‘How do we know what needs to be done?’ Their suggestion was to apply for a grant to help underwrite the cost of doing this comprehensive building conditions survey,” Williams said. “This will determine what needs we might have in terms of preserving the church building.”
While she said the church didn’t believe there were any pressing issues with the building outside of possible minimal damage from water seeping through part of its stone facade, she said they wanted to be prepared because the church is an important pillar in the community, critical for the congregation and a meeting place for several local groups.
The landmark conservancy and church estimates that it is reaching well over 1,000 people through its congregation, which includes people from East Williston, Albertson, Roslyn, Westbury, New Hyde Park, and Mineola, and by offering space to groups like Alcoholics Anonymous, the Victory Life Church, and the Scottish Games Group.
Williams said that the building conditions survey was a first step in being able to apply for other grant money to make necessary improvements to the church as it moves into its second century.
“That’s really what we’re trying to set ourselves up for,” Williams said. “We want to keep the church building in good shape and going for the next 100 years, so that we can keep the congregation going for the next 100 years as well.”
