North Carolina basilica receives $750,000 preservation grant from National Park Service

CNA Staff, Aug 29, 2024 / 12:34 pm

A historic minor basilica in Asheville, North Carolina, has received a $750,000 preservation grant from the National Park Service (NPS) to preserve what the government calls a “cultural and traditional landmark” in the southern part of the city. 

NPS said in an August press release that it was awarding a Save America’s Treasures grant to the preservation fund of the Minor Basilica of St. Lawrence the Deacon and Martyr in Asheville. The church is located in the Diocese of Charlotte.

Completed in 1909, the Spanish Renaissance building was elevated to minor basilica status in 1993 by Pope John Paul II. It was built by Spanish architect Rafael Guastavino and has been described as his “crowning achievement in American building arts.”

The church has been hailed for its architectural and interior beauty, including what is reportedly one of the largest freestanding elliptical domes in North America.

The interior of the dome boasts an extraordinary layering of the architect’s signature “Guastavino tiles,” a form of the ancient Catalan vault.

NPS said the building “faces serious threat” from “water infiltration that has damaged sections of the masonry on the cornice and parapet walls.”

The restoration grant “will address this threat by conducting probes to determine further structural deterioration, performing structural repairs, and rebuilding the brick masonry, including the parapet walls and cornice,” NPS said.

“This work ensures [the] structure may continue to preserve its structural engineering integrity and endure as a cultural and traditional landmark of Asheville’s downtown.”

Mary Everist, the president of the board of the basilica’s preservation fund, told CNA that the award is “a very prestigious grant.”

“You have to have a great deal of national significance to receive this grant, and we received the highest amount they award,” she said.

The total amount required to address all the church’s needs runs in the millions of dollars, Everist noted.

“We have about $6.5 million in costs that will be required to just do the bare minimum of repairs to stop the water coming into the building,” she said. The complete renovation estimate, she said, is about $20 million.

The full repairs, she said, “would include restoration of the stained-glass windows and restoration of the interior. We also don’t have any Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant bathrooms on the campus. And we’d make improvements to the rectory, which is also a building of national significance.”

The church has raised about $3 million of the needed funds, “which is an incredible amount for a very small parish,” she said. “But of course that left a gap.”

“We’ve secured grants for another million,” she said. “And we’re going to be moving forward with a national campaign. We also have donations from family foundations and regular donors. The goal is to be able to do this preservation without saddling the parish with debt.”

Everist said the parish is “very active” and “very diverse.” It holds four Masses per weekend, including one in Spanish. “We have homeless ministries and street ministries,” she said.

The church boasts several chapels as well as a Mary garden and extensive stained-glass windows. 

Guastavino himself is buried in a crypt within the church. The architect died before the church was completed; his son finished the interior of the building after his death.

The Save America’s Treasures program was established in 1998 “to celebrate America’s premier cultural resources in the new millennium,” NPS says on its website.

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The program has distributed more than 1,300 grants totaling more than $300 million to numerous projects across the United States, including Catholic churches.