Four sacred sites on Long Island win thousands in restoration grants

Four sacred historical sites on Long Island have won a total of nearly $50,000 in grants to help repair, restore and preserve churches that are more than a century old, officials said.

The grants were issued to congregations in Bay Shore, Amityville, Bellport and Huntington by the New York Landmarks Conservancy, a private nonprofit. They were among 16 grants totaling $321,000 awarded to 15 historic religious properties in the state.

The sites on Long Island are the United Methodist Church of Bay Shore, St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Amityville, Bellport United Methodist Church and Ketewamoke DAR Hall in Huntington, which was formerly the First Universalist Church.

The church in Bay Shore will receive $16,000 to help pay for the restoration of a tower, while the church in Amityville will get $15,000 to help replace cedar shingles throughout the complex. The Bellport church will receive $14,000 to pay for restoring a steeple along with project management costs.

The Ketewamoke DAR Hall in Huntington will receive $4,000 to help pay for masonry repointing as well as foundation, roof drainage, and carpentry repairs.

Some of the conservancy funding comes from the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation, the group said.

“Our grants support the preservation of these landmark buildings, which are important anchors for their members and their communities,” Peg Breen, president of the conservancy, said in a statement. “These 15 congregations reach almost 140,000 people in their areas with programs that address food insecurity, addiction, and social isolation, and serve as venues for important arts and cultural activities.”

The houses of worship must fill out an application to apply for the grants.

The United Methodist Church of Bay Shore includes an "1893 transitional Romanesque-revival and Queen Anne-style, auditorium-plan church," the conservancy said. The church helps about 3,000 people besides its regular membership through activities including a weekly soup kitchen, two AA and NA groups, a Head Start program, a thrift shop and Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, the conservancy said.

Pastor Daehyun (Daniel) Park said the church's tower was damaged in a thunderstorm and that the grant will help repair it.

“We prayed for the grant and thank God” they received the money, Park said. “We are so grateful. It’s a wonderful opportunity.”

In Amityville, the grant is helping to pay to replace aging cedar shingles throughout the church complex, said Father Randolph Jon Geminder, the longtime rector.

The grant, which will cover about one-tenth the cost of the project, is “a great help so we are very thankful,” he said.

“The shingles do indeed protect the building and they were curling up and splitting. They were very old,” he added. “It was necessary to protect the infrastructure of the building, but it also does restore the appearance to how it must have looked in 1888 when they finally finished the building.”

He said the church is “the keystone of the historic district of the village of Amityville.”

The parish helps about 1,700 people besides its own members through activities including the Amityville Women’s Club, Al-Anon, concerts and rehearsals for music groups, an annual fish fry, and guild teas, the conservancy said.

The Bellport United Methodist Church “was founded in 1850 and has been at its current building since 1945,” the conservancy said. “The Greek Revival, wood-frame, gable-end ‘meetinghouse’ style church is an excellent, well-preserved example of mid-19th century, wood framed churches found throughout Long Island.”

That church hosts a preschool, a thrift shop, 12-step meetings, scout troops, dance and music classes, and a quilting group, the conservancy said.

The hall in Huntington was constructed as the First Universalist Society in 1837, the group said. The Ketewamoke Daughters of the American Revolution has used the building as a Chapter House since 1914. The building is used for activities including food drives, collections for the USMC Toys for Tots program, school-supply collections, a book drive, and a scholarship program.