Restoring the 1873 tower of Grace in Newton Corner
You can help us restore Grace Church’s historic bells!
Your gift will be matched 1:1 through the National Fund for Sacred Places.
Thanks to the advocacy and generosity of many neighbors and friends who supported the restoration of Grace Church’s landmark Tower, restoration work is well underway and the tower’s future is secured.
We now have a unique opportunity to preserve the beloved bells inside the tower, too. The Grace Church Tower houses the City of Newton’s oldest bells, but their preservation was not included within the scope of the Community Preservation Act grant that helped to fund the restoration of the tower.
A matching grant from the National Fund for Sacred Places means that any gifts that Grace receives to restore the bells will be matched 1:1. Thank you for helping us ensure that the bells can continue to ring out!
The interior of the bell tower
After years of planning the stabilization and restoration of the Grace Church Bell Tower has begun!
Thanks to all of our supporters (over 700 petition signers from across the community), we were able to secure the Community Preservation Act (CPA) grant we sought from the City of Newton. The grant was finally ratified by the City Council in August. The $1.4M matching grant from the CPA Historic Preservation Fund was the catalyst we hoped it would be for further fundraising. To date we have secured, in addition to $1.4M from Newton, $100K from the Massachusetts Historical Commission and we have been invited to apply for additional private foundations for further support. We are also happy to report that we are seeing success in meeting our internal fundraising goals with our Restore, Renew, Rejoice Capital Campaign.
So with a substantial amount of our funding coming into view, we were able to enter into a competitive bid process earlier this summer. Out of that, we were pleased to enter into a partnership with Aniceto Restoration, a family owned masonry restoration firm based in Milford, MA. At the end of August, Aniceto began preparation for the stabilization and exterior restoration of the tower with the installation of scaffolding and protection for adjacent Church roofs and stained glass windows.
While scaffolding and preliminary stabilization will be done this year, the majority of masonry restoration will commence in the Spring with completion, including reinstallation of the bells, for late Summer 2022.
Stay tuned for further updates on the progress.
As part of the work to be completed in the fall of 2021, the eight-bell Eldredge Chime and monumental tolling bell will be removed and taken off site for restoration.
Hear the bells of Grace Church:
Read about Grace in the news:
We thank the Newton CPC and City Council for approving a matching grant of $1.433M-support that is vital to saving the tower.
“In addition to their religious and social value, [Religious Institutions] offer architectural variety and in many cases open space in their neighborhoods. . . neighborhoods can no longer take for granted the continued presence of local synagogues and churches.”
