Historic Collins Chapel Church receives more than $500K in grants for renovations and upgrades

What’s happening: Collins Chapel Christian Methodist Episcopal Church was established in 1841, Memphis’ first church congregation of color. Now, nearly 181 years later, the historic church building is set to receive some significant repairs and improvements, and more than half a million in federal grant dollars will help them do just that. The church recently announced that it has received approximately $548,000 in grants from the African American Civil Rights grant program of the Historic Preservation Fund administered by the National Park Service, Department of the Interior.

Collins Chapel Christian Methodist Episcopal Church is located at 678 Washington Ave. in Memphis.What it is: Still an active congregation today, Collins Chapel Church is one of the oldest Black churches in continuous existence in the United States. Founded in 1841 in the balcony of Wesley Chapel Methodist Church in Memphis, a congregation of slaves and freedmen would eventually purchase the plot on Washington Avenue, first building a wooden structure there in 1859. The current brick building was built there after the Memphis Massacre of 1866, which burned down this church and the other Black churches and schools of Memphis; 46 Black people were murdered in the massacre. The church became an important center in the fight for civil rights, and has counted Ida B. Wells, W.C. Handy, and Alberta Hunter among its many notable congregants.

What’s planned: Collins Chapel Church has received a Pre-Preservation planning grant of nearly $48,000, allowing for a structural evaluation and to identify necessary improvements to the infrastructure, ventilation, plumbing, and electrical systems. A $500,000 Physical Preservation grant will go to pre-construction and construction costs, which are anticipated to include structural enhancement, exterior envelope repairs, mechanical, electrical and plumbing upgrades, interior modernization repairs, and site improvements. The Memphis-based Self + Tucker Architects is the architectural firm of record.

What they’re saying: “Our collective testimony is to God Be the Glory,” says Rev. Bethel L. Harris, pastor of Collins Chapel Church. “It is only by God’s grace, mercy and blessings that Collins Chapel continues to thrive by receiving these wonderful grants for example and has survived here for nearly 181 years.”

Collins Chapel Christian Methodist Episcopal Church is located at 678 Washington Ave. in Memphis.