The historic Chicago landmark First Church of Deliverance was awarded a $500,000 grant by the National Fund for Sacred Places, the organization announced Tuesday.
The grant builds on the Bronzeville church’s $228,000 grant in 2019 from the Chicago Department of Planning and Development’s Adopt-a-Landmark fund. This included restoring the church’s facade and oak front doors.
Phase two will include the restoration of the stained glass windows and towers, as well as assessing work that needs to be done for the church’s campus.
“There is deterioration, and [the stained glass windows and towers] are in need of work. Some things may need to be replaced. … That’s something that we want to take care of and not allow to further deteriorate,” Thomas said.
This includes the church, a children’s church connected to the south part of the property and the Maggie Drummond Community Center & Day Care at 4301 S. Wabash Ave.
“[We want to] get the towers and the stained glass windows back to its original excellence,” she said. “This helps us to realize and achieve the goals that we have planned for phase two.”
This story has been updated to correctly reflect the National Fund for Sacred Places distributes the grant program.
Mariah Rush
Chicago Sun-TimesMoney reporter
