The Delaware Preservation Fund awarded a $4,100 grant to St. Daniel’s Community Church of Iron Hill in Newark.
The building has suffered general wear and tear as well as weather and termite damage. The grant will reimburse the church for half of the cost of renovations to their flooring and joists beneath the floors.
St. Daniel's was vandalized with racial slurs and threats carved into the building just before Easter this year. Now that interior renovations are done, Pastor Joe Field says he hopes to address a carving on the outside of the building.
“I think that’s the climate of the country right now,” Field said, referencing the vandalism. “It was definitely heartbreaking.”
The church continues to hold services every Sunday at 11 a.m., and Field said the funding has helped the small Newark community.
“The grant is truly a blessing because I have an older congregation, and you know, we're limited on funds,” Field said. “So, anything that we can get from anyone is truly a blessing to keep the church standing because the church has a lot of history.”
The Delaware Preservation Fund closed applications for 2024 in February. The University of Delaware’s Center for Historical Architecture and Design manages applications for the Fund. They suggested St. Daniel’s Community Church receive $5,000, which is the highest amount a grant can be without special circumstances. The university's CHAD creates a report each year based on all applicants and assigns scores to each project to denote suggested priority based on grant criteria. The Delaware Preservation Fund's Board of Directors then makes the final call on which projects receive grants.
St. Daniel’s Community Church was the second-highest priority out of 24 projects as designated by the university’s program, according to a board member.
Michael Emmons, Jr. is an architectural historian for CHAD at the University of Delaware. He also works with the Delaware Preservation Fund.
He said the Newark congregation is dwindling, and they’re trying to preserve the church and keep the community alive. It is a rare surviving African American church, and small congregations in the 1800s often didn’t have the financial means to build large, impressive structures, according to Emmons.
“The fact that it survived despite being a comparatively humble structure and still survives 180 years later is pretty remarkable,” Emmons said.
The church dates back to the pre-Civil War era and was a free Black church when slavery still existed in Delaware. It is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The members of St. Daniel’s Community Church have historic ties to the congregation – several belong to families that have been attending the church for generations. The grounds include a cemetery that holds the graves of Civil War, World War I and World War II veterans.
The church has several goals for the future, according to Field.
“We’re praying to God that some young people will come and join us and help us to keep everything in order as far as the church goes,” Field said.
Preserving the historic church and its story is vitally important to Field, and he said they’re coming along.
More information on the Delaware Preservation Fund and how to apply can be found at their website.
