poltSetViews(); National Trust grant provides preservation hope for modernist East Chicago church - NOMA

National Trust grant provides preservation hope for modernist East Chicago church

East Chicago Church

St. Mark A.M.E. Zion Church in East Chicago, Indiana, was designed by Chicago architect Wendell Campbell. Candace Dane Chambers/Sun-Times

By  Lee Bey

The $150,000 award will help St. Mark A.M.E. Zion Church’s congregation create a plan to preserve the unique 53-year-old structure designed by the late Black Chicago architect Wendell Campbell

A modernist East Chicago, Indiana, church that mixes architectural Neo-Expressionism with 1970s futurism has been awarded a $150,000 grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The funds will help the congregation of St. Mark African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church develop a plan to repair and restore the edifice designed by the late pioneering Black Chicago architect Wendell Campbell, an East Chicago native.

“This [grant] is really an opportunity for them to step back, create a plan that outlines the existing conditions, create a road map that can really help them reach their goals in terms of preserving this building,” said Brandon Bibby, senior preservation architect at the National Trust’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund.