Billings First Congregational Church has been awarded a $250,000 grant from the National Fund for Sacred Places for Historic Preservation.
The church was built in 1882 and carries so much history with it. It is the second church in Montana to receive this grant in the nine years it's been offered.
“This is a church with a long history and a strong legacy in this community,” Senior Pastor of First Congregational Church Rev. Lisa Harmon said recently. “(The church) has changed over the years, and morphed and whatnot."
Billings First Church was just one of 24 recipients across the country. The grant is intended to help preserve historically significant spaces that are welcoming to the community.
“The grant is really going to be able to help us preserve this really important sacred, architecturally significant, historic and cultural space,” Harmon said.
The National Fund for Sacred Places director, Rachel Hildebrandt, said Billings First Congregational Church stood out immediately.
“It's a program of Partners for Sacred Places in collaboration with the National Trust for Historic Preservation. And what we do is serve congregations in older and historic properties that are making a significant impact in their communities,” Hildebrandt said. “They have an outsized impact. They do incredible work with Native American population, LGBTQ population. We've just found their story so compelling.”
Harmon said they plan to update the outdated double boiler and HVAC system, become more ADA accessible, and bring overhead sprinkling systems to more portions of the building.
“That sprinkling is really, really important because I think we could do more with our sheltering ministries in the future if we have additional spaces where we are allowed to do that. And it is an ongoing concern in the community,” Harmon said. "Also, this building doesn't have air conditioning. I mean, wrap your head around that."
But the congregation still has work to do before many of the improvements can begin. The church has to match the grant amount.
"The way the timeline for the grant is really 18 months to two years because in year one, they assume rightly so that you're going to be working on your capital campaign. Now, when you raise half the amount that you're supposed to raise for your grant, they release half the funds. So you can really get started as early as your campaign is successful," Harmon said. “So, we are taking donations already, which the community is really starting to call us with their donations… we have work to do, but we are really confident.”
She's hoping to continue honoring the church's past and growing its future.
“We want to create a lot of lasting legacy here in the city of Billings. And so it's pretty pretty neat. Pretty serendipitous,” Harmon said.
