Spokane’s historic West Central Abbey receives $50,000 grant for essential renovations

(FāVS News) — One of Spokane’s oldest churches, West Central Abbey, is showing its age beneath its weathered cedar shingles. Along with original dim lighting and worn floorboards, the historic chapel still lacks basic amenities — including a bathroom.

That’s about to change, though, thanks to a $50,000 capital grant to help preserve this piece of neighborhood history. The church is working to raise an additional $50,000 in matching funds.

The Episcopal church was one of 24 houses of worship across the country to receive funding from the National Fund for Sacred Spaces, which is a collaboration between the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Partners for Sacred Spaces.

“I am really excited that this is going to allow us to contribute to the beautification, but not the gentrification, of our West Central neighborhood,” said the Rev. Katy Shedlock, vicar of the abbey. “I think those two things get conflated sometimes in our talk about urban change and neighborhood development. Churches are a hedge against gentrification, right, because they are public spaces where hopefully anyone is welcome and where the needs of those folks on the edges are addressed and served.”

Built in 1895, the church has two separate buildings — a chapel and a parish hall. Originally named Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, the congregation worshipped there until the parish slowly declined, closing in 2013.

The Episcopal Diocese of Spokane, however, held onto the property and used it to serve weekly community meals, called “Dinner Table.” The neighborhood it sits in, West Central, is one of the poorest zip codes in the Pacific Northwest, according to the Spokesman-Review.

Shedlock described the area as an inner city neighborhood near downtown Spokane. In the ’60s and ’70s, she explained, “white flight” changed the demographics of many urban areas as white residents moved to the suburbs. However, discriminatory practices like redlining made it difficult for people of color to buy homes in either neighborhood.

The city’s disinvestment in the neighborhood is how it came to get the nickname “felony flats,” she explained.

A Spokane native, Shedlock was one of the pastors who brought the West Central church back to life, forming a new congregation there in 2018 and changing its name to West Central Abbey.

Bishop Gretchen Rehberg said its vision truly is to be an “Abbey,” where the community can gather for what it needs.

“It is a place where people grow food, are fed, art is curated, concerts are offered and all have a place at the table,” she said. “This is not simply a denominational church but a community of neighbors who are about one another and the wider community.”

Jennifer Sandy, National Trust’s senior director of preservation programs, said more than 400 applicants applied for funding this year, up 31% from last year. 

For the Abbey to be selected, Sandy said, speaks to not only the congregation’s historical significance, but also its “community-serving work.”

What especially impressed her, she said, was its work in opioid overdose prevention.

Working with the West Central Neighborhood Council and Washington State Department of Health, the church hosted overdose prevention training last year and became a free distribution site for Naloxone.

Today, the chapel pulses with new life. Sunday mornings draw full congregations to services that weave together poetry, storytelling, visual art and what Shedlock calls “non-church music.” Beyond its weekly meal program, the space has evolved into a community arts hub, hosting music workshops, concerts and, on occasion, a visiting artist-in-residence.

Rachel Hilderbrant, director of the National Fund for Sacred Spaces, said these are the reasons West Central Abbey’s application stood out to her.

“As a first time applicant, the church did an outstanding job of painting a picture of people and place — of a diverse, young congregation and a long vacant building being renewed little by little,” she said.

But, maintaining two active historic spaces is not easy.

“Shit breaks all the time,” Shedlock said, noting a recent water heater leak that went unnoticed.

The grant will allow the church to replace its original siding for the first time, after decades of repainting, and repair broken floorboards, which have hard-to-find replacement parts. The church also plans to update the chapel lights, which are “historic and cool, but it’s not super functional,” said Shedlock. Perhaps most notably, the chapel will re-purpose an unused, inaccessible storage closet space to install a bathroom. The only bathroom on the property now is in the parish hall, which requires exiting the chapel and going outside to the next building.

Sandy said it’s a big project that the congregation won’t have to do alone. Being an awardee of the grant includes wrap-around services, including in-person training for all 24 faith leaders selected, tech support and other resources.

West Central Abbey is the second church to be awarded this grant in the state of Washington. In 2016 Urban Grace in Tacoma was granted funds for numerous improvements, including structural and exterior repairs, bathroom renovations and fire alarms.

Looking ahead, Shedlock plans to celebrate the abbey’s history with a community event while rallying support for the church’s next challenge: raising $50,000 in matching funds through its new online campaign.