What is the Steeples Project?
How does Historic Boston choose which properties to target for grants?
What types of grants are available through the Steeples Project?
What are the conditions of the grants?
What effect has the Steeples Project had on its recipients and their neighborhoods?
Representative Accomplishments and Unmet Needs
Steeples, towers, and domes uplift the psyche of whole communities. They punctuate Boston's skyline, identify neighborhoods, celebrate human creativity, reaffirm aesthetic values, and often mark the location of the most reliable and energetic human service providers in the community. However, many religious property owners do not have the means to care for their most valuable tangible asset -- their building.
As an outgrowth of several years of its own planning studies about the preservation of religious properties and in the context of a national movement led by Partners for Sacred Places, Historic Boston
Incorporated, a non-profit organization established in 1960, initiated the Steeples Project in 1992. The goal of the Steeples Project is to help Boston religious property owners maintain their buildings and thus continue the invaluable services they provide in the needy areas of Boston. Under the Steeples Project,
Historic Boston raises funds from charitable foundations, and then re-grants this money in the form of competitive matching grants to targeted historic religious properties. To date, 14 foundations have granted HBI over $1.2 million in support of its religious property preservation initiatives which includes an energy conservation program. On January 6, 2000, the Save America's Treasures Preservation Planning
Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation became a supporter of the project awarding HBI
$30,000.
Grants under the Steeples Project grant program help fund, on a matching basis, comprehensive building assessments, repairs to building envelopes, and the illumination of steeples, towers, and domes. Grants under the Energy Program help fund, on a matching basis, an extensive written energy conservation analysis and plan for each building enrolled in the program, and competitive matching grants to help fund suggested alterations. In 2002, the Steeples Project awarded grants totaling $222,100 to 12 religious properties. Since 1993, HBI has awarded $1,028,584 to 44 religious properties. These grants have leveraged more than $9.1 million of new investment in these sites from public and private sources, including over $1 million from the Massachusetts Historical Commission. HBI funds all of the overhead, fundraising, and counseling of church leadership for the Steeples Project using revenues from its historic real estate holdings.

Because of its limited funds, Historic Boston invites only specifically targeted historic religious properties to apply for Steeples grants through a competitive application process. Targeted properties meet some or all of the following criteria:
1. they are architecturally and historically significant, with steeples, towers, or domes that are visual landmarks;
2. they could become endangered due to management, finance, or demographic changes;
3. they provide human services that improve the quality of life in Boston neighborhoods;
4. they are located in transitional neighborhoods; and
5. as a group, they represent diverse areas of Boston.
For the 2002/2003 grant cycle, Historic Boston received 23 applications requesting a total of $782,150.
HBI made awards to 12 applicants.
Invited properties can apply for grants from one or more of the following categories:
Lighting Design:
A professional lighting designer under contract to Historic Boston will present alternative exterior lighting schemes for the building through actual mock-ups at the site. Once the lighting designer, congregational leaders, and Historic Boston staff have decided on the most desirable lighting scheme, the lighting designer will produce a set of specifications suitable for going out to bid for the installation of lighting equipment. Estimated costs: $2,000 for professional services, including labor and equipment rentals.
Grantee's share: $900 paid to Historic Boston.
Lighting Installation:
Once a lighting designer has developed plans and specifications (whether or not as part of the program above), Historic Boston will supply matching funds for lighting installation. Grant amount: up to $10,000 to be matched.
Technical Assistance:
Technical assistance grants are available to fund a comprehensive building conditions survey, long-term maintenance plans, and the preparation of plans and specifications suitable for bidding. The purpose of these grants are to help property owners effectively position themselves to raise funds and to contract for the repair of steeples, towers, domes, and building envelopes. Historic Boston staff will help define the scope of services for each site and will assist property owners in the selection of a consultant. Grant amount: up to $10,000 to be matched.
Maintenance and Repair:

Grants for maintenance and repair are available for applicants which have already completed plans and specifications at the time of application, or which are completed by a date set by Historic Boston. Grant amount: up to $50,000 to be matched.
Property owners must match the grants awarded on a dollar-for-dollar basis. All work performed must be consistent with the wise stewardship of historic structures, and in accordance with the Secretary of
Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation of Historic Buildings. Procurement of construction or professional services must be done in such a way as to assure that the price is competitive. Grant recipients must execute the work responsibly and on an agreed time schedule.
The Steeples Project has succeeded in doing more than just repairing buildings and lighting steeples. It has engaged the attention and imagination of religious leaders, their congregations, neighborhood residents, and the greater Boston population. The effect is a community-wide commitment to inner-city neighborhood revitalization. As the Rev. Eugene E. Hamilton, Pastor of Roxbury Presbyterian Church observed,
The proper maintenance of the building has an impact far beyond those who come to worship. Beginning with our congregation, we can transform the inner life of the inner city. As the building begins to reemerge, perhaps in conscious and unconscious ways it can have an impact on people who pass in front of it.
In this revitalization project [partially funded by a Historic Boston Steeples grant] they may gain a better sense of their own self-worth and self-esteem. They might look again with new eyes of hope and faith and go out and get their GED, get a job, enter a recovery program. Seeing an old dilapidated building fixed up speaks to the heart.
The grants from the Steeples Project also leverages foundation monies in numerous ways. As property owners must match Steeples grants with their own funds, congregations and community members have united to raise money. In addition, Steeples Project funds have helped site owners plan for and prepare applications to the Massachusetts Historical Commission's Preservation Projects Fund ("MPPF").
Steeples Project grants have also provided funds to help match MPPF awards, further leveraging these institutions' limited resources.
The late Rev. Ozzie Edwards of Eliot Church in Roxbury once said, "Historic Boston also helped us identify sources of funds. Churches occupy a very unique niche in which it is very difficult to raise money to maintain the building. 'We do not give money to religious organizations or structures' is something I've heard over and over again from bank and city officials.'"
Technical assistance grants from the Steeples Project often result in improvements that can attract additional support. The comprehensive conditions assessments and master planning studies funded in part by the Project allow congregations to begin to think strategically about future building repair and programming issues. The recommendations and itemized cost estimates generated from these studies

provide the bases for long-range planning and fundraising goals. Coupled with the Steeples Project major repairs grants, this commitment to long-term planning ensures that these glorious buildings will be around for later generations to enjoy.
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