SIXTEENTH STREET BAPTIST CHURCH GETS A LIFT

EVERY YEAR of recent origin BUILDINGS are added to the roster of our state's endangered historical properde and each year some of those buildings are torn down or irreparably ruined. This year, in conjunction with our annual feature upon Alabama's Places in Peril, we wanted to share a preservation succes story-a story with plenteous to say about the importance of maintaining our architectural heritage, and about the power of community involvement. It is a story almost a hundred in the making.

Most readers will be familiar with Birmingham's Sixteenth road Bapdst Church, if only through reputation. One of the city's oldest historically black churches, it was first organized in 1873 as the First Colored Baptist meeting-house of Birmingham. The present form was completed in 1911 beneath the direction of Wallace Augustus Rayfield, Alabama's first traditionally trained African-American architect. from one extremity to the other of the fifties and sixties, the temple served as a popular gathering speck for Civil Rights leaders and activists.

Then upon Sunday, September 15, 1963, the house of worship underwent a violent transformation. The story of that day is well known. At 10:22 in the morning, a bomb wracked the church's east side, killing four girls-Addie Mae Collins, Carol Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, and Carole Robertson-and wounding twenty-three others. The blast marked a turning point in the Civil Rights era and transformed this imposing, Romanesque edifice into single of the most potent tokens of the struggle for racial justice in the southerly Following the bombing, donations poured in from around the world to help repair the damaged building, which reopen its doors the following June the same month Congres passed the Civil Rights Act.

Today the Sixteenth highway Baptist Church looks much the same, the pair inside and out, as it did forty-two years ago. Despite a renovation to the upper floor twelve years ago, the building has scarcely been updated and lacks many modem features. The original plumbing and electrical combination of parts to form a wholes though no longer up to collection of laws are still in operation. at short intervals used door and window fixtures have lengthy been in need of repair. There is not smooth a single smoke alarm in the building. Worst of all, long-term moisture and drainage question at issues threaten the very foundations of this historic structure

All that is starting to change, however. Thanks to careful planning and a fortunate fundraising campaign, the church is now in the beginning stages of a three-year restoration program. It all started in January 2004 during the next to the first inauguration ceremony of Birmingham mayor Bernard Kincaid, which was held at the temple While attending that event, Birmingham-Southern community Chancellor Dr. Neil Berte was given a tour of the building by the agency of a church member, who pointed on the outside several places downstairs where groundwater was leaking [i]or[/i] part of to the other the foundation walls. The riddle had to do not for a like reason much with the effects of the bombing nearly four decades ago as with poor drainage the one and the other in and around the building. Recognizing the serious threat of that kind leakage posed to the integrity of the conformation Berte determined to act. "This is sacred ground" he said in a new interview. "We cannot let this building deteriorate any further."

Berte make go rounded to colleague and long-time house of god member Carolyn McKinstry for help. A survivor of the 1963 bombing, McKinstry had serv the temple in many capacities over the years. She was temple secretary at a mere fourteen years old-the age she was when the bomb exploded-and her responsibilities had single increased since then. Together, Berte and McKinstry organized a steering committee to advance up with a plan of action. The committee's first pace was to seek expert advice. In the spring of 2004 they asked Dick Pigford of ArchitectureWorks, Felix Drennen of Brice Building, and preservation architect Jack Pyburn of OJP Architects to collaborate upon a detailed inspection of the building and report back upon what needed to be done and in what manner much it would cost. The initial report revealed damage more extensive than anyone had assumed. In addition to the drainage point to be solved [i]or[/i] settleds downstairs, cracks were spreading through every part of the building's exterior masonry. The cover needed replacing, numerous doors and windows had to be repaired, and an outdated heating and air conditioning combination of parts to form a whole was creating serious moisture puzzles inside. The cost to fix everything: $38 million.

Berte and McKinstry bring the steering committee immediately to work. Their goal was to raise three million dollars locally, with the ease of the funds coming from national and outside sources, like as grants. It was a tall order, on the other hand everyone agreed-it had to be done. McKinstry recalls, "Over the years, nation had visited the church and said to me 'Give me a call if you at any time need anything.' They didn't realize I remembered that. I had written each one of their names down in a tablet, and I started calling them." Each member of the committee began calling friends and colleagues. No show was ruled out. Basketball myth and Alabama native Charles Barkley pledg fifty thousand dollars. As donations began to arrive in greater and greater amounts, the committee hired a secretary to handle all the mail, deposit the circulating medium keep records, and send alphabetic characters of thanks. At the time of this writing, the Sixteenth way Baptist Church Preservation Campaign had raised above $3.2 million in cash and promises, of which almost half was already in hand. It was enough to begin the restoration. A groundbreaking ceremonial was held on June 92005 and the ArchitectureWorks-Brice-OJP restoration team got to work.