St. Peter’s is the oldest Catholic church in Charlotte. With a new capital campaign underway, the parish hopes to begin renovations in 2024 to protect and preserve the historic building for future generations. (Photo Provided) CHARLOTTE — St. Peter Church in uptown Charlotte has launched a capital campaign to fund major renovations needed for its 130-year-old building on Tryon Street.
The fundraising goal for the Renovations and Repair Capital Campaign, launched Oct. 1, is $2.6 million. Jesuit Father Tim Stephens, pastor, said the goal is to conclude the fundraising campaign by Dec. 3, the first Sunday of Advent.
“This is essentially a renovation plan which is about maintaining and restoring the church that we have,” said Father Stephens. “The plan is focused on the original elements – the floor, the ceiling, the pews – and bringing electricity and lighting and sound up to code and modern standards. We’re doing this so the church we have received from past generations can be passed on to future generations.”
He noted this is just a few weeks before the parish celebrates 130 years in the current building, which was dedicated on Christmas Eve, 1893.
Renovations and repairs are aimed to begin in early May 2024 and conclude by September 2024 in order to cause as little disruption to the life of the parish as possible, Father Stephens said.
A plan for the renovation project, published on the parish website, said the campaign has two primary goals: to restore the church building to its original soundness and preserve it for the future, and enrich the worship experience.
The needed structural renovations include replacing the tin ceiling in the sanctuary and nave, repairing the original tin ceiling below the balcony and narthex, replacing the original hardwood floors including the subflooring, improving the weather-tightness of the exterior, and painting and repairing the bell tower.
The historic pews, a gift from St. Katharine Drexel in 1910, will be restored. Improvements will be made to the sound system and acoustics in the church and the overflow area in Biss Hall.
Lighting will be retrofitted, and work will be done on the interior and the entry way to improve access for all while also maintaining safety.
While the renovations are going on, every effort will be made not to disrupt worship and other parish activities, Father Stephens said.
“We’ll be offering Mass on the parish campus at Benedict Hall, which can hold about 200 people with an overflow area in the basement,” he said. “We also plan to add more Masses so everyone will be able to be served.”
St. Peter Church was originally formed in 1851, when Father J.J. O’Connell laid the cornerstone for the original building. Six Benedictine monks served at the church before the original building’s foundation was declared structurally unsound – the damage caused by a munitions explosion at the end of the Civil War, according to a published parish history.
In 1893, the cornerstone was laid for the Victorian Gothic-style building that currently stands at 507 South Tryon St.
Attendance at the church dwindled as the Catholic population in Charlotte shifted to the suburbs in the 1960s, and St. Peter ceased to exist as a full parish in 1970. It became a full parish again in 1986 after then-Bishop John Donoghue asked Jesuit priests from Maryland to staff the parish.
The church was renovated and rededicated in 1989, then repaired again in the early 2000s after the church’s famed Ben Long frescoes were damaged.
— Christina Lee Knauss