New Albany’s Town Clock Church garners $200k national grant | News

NEW ALBANY – Hours of work and thousands of dollars have been poured into restoring New Albany’s historic Town Clock Church, and a grant announced Monday will help preserve those efforts for years to come.

Friends of the Town Clock Church will receive a $200,000 grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. The grant is among the $4 million the organization is providing to 31 historic Black churches in the U.S.

Town Clock, which is the home of Second Baptist Church, is the only church receiving an endowment and sustainability grant.

“The grant will support endowment growth for the perpetual funding of cyclical maintenance for the historic Town Clock Church to ensure that the 2014 restoration and preservation efforts are sustained in the future,” National Trust officials wrote in a description of the award.

Town Clock Church was built in 1852, and it served as a station in the Underground Railroad. Major upgrades have been completed at the church, including replacing its steeple. In addition to building improvements, Friends of the Town Clock Church have added a historical gardens area on the Main Street property. The church is regularly open for tours.

Jerry Finn, president of the Friends of the Town Clock Church, said news of the endowment grant was especially moving since it came on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

“It just reminds us of the work that we as a nation have done and need to continue doing to ensure that all people are treated equally and have the same opportunities across the board,” Finn said.

“I’m elated and honored. Being the only church in the country to receive an endowment building grant speaks volumes about the work that we’ve already done and the need to make sure it never gets in the condition it was in before.”

The grant, which is the highest amount National Trust awards, requires matching funds from Friends of the Town Clock Church. Town Clock was the only church in Indiana to receive a grant in the latest round of funding. 

Since 2022, National Trust’s Action Fund has provided more than $9.8 million in grants to over 80 historic churches.

“We created the Preserving Black Churches program to ensure the historic Black church’s legacy is told and secured. That these cultural assets can continue to foster community resilience and drive meaningful change in our society,” said Brent Leggs, executive director of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. “We couldn’t be more excited to honor our second round of grantees and ensure that African Americans – and our entire nation – can enjoy an empowered future built on the inspiring foundations of our past.”

The Action Fund is a $90 million effort in partnership with Ford, Mellon, JPB and Lily Endowment foundations.

“Black churches have been at the forefront of meaningful democratic reform since this nation’s founding. They’re a living testament to the resilience of our ancestors in the face of unimaginably daunting challenges,” said Henry Louis Gates, Jr., historian and advisor to the Action Fund. “The heart of our spiritual world is the Black church. These places of worship, these sacred cultural centers, must exist for future generations to understand who we were as a people.”