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Once standing as the tallest building on the Village Green in Homer, the Calvary Episcopal Church, known as the little white church, is now being restored to be the new Homer Cultural Center.
Since its purchase by the Center for the Arts of Homer in October, staff and contractors have been scoping out damages in and around the building.
A YouTube channel called Restoration: Homer Cultural Center will provide updates hosted by Kim Hubbard on what has been discovered, what needs to be done and what is being worked on.
Ty Marshal, executive director of the Center for the Arts of Homer, said the process of restoring the building includes grant writing, getting the funds, constructing and then booking events.
The center is open to input from the community for events the church might be used for. The chapel can accomodate 200 people and the community room another 50 to 80. A kitchen and hallway connect the two rooms.
“I see performances, lectures, but I see things happening outside of the arts as well — perhaps some science presentations or historical lectures and presentations,” Marshal said. “I think it would be a great spot for choruses, chamber orchestras and potentially local theater productions. I can see classes taking place here that reach out to all different branches of arts and humanity."
"I could see the school system using the building for their own purposes and hopefully local Homer organizations that might want to hold their annual meeting here or a special event that they can go off-site for,” he added.
BUT FIRST
Much must be done first. The staff has discovered:
The roof of the entrance between the two buildings that leads to the basement has caused water to damage the foundation of both buildings.
The ceramic bricks at the bottom of the community room are cracked.
There’s asbestos underneath the linoleum in the kitchen floor.
The kitchen needs new counters.
The post-and-beam timber framing of the walls has rotted sill plates that must be replaced and plastered.
The facility needs new insulation, rewiring and a sound system.
The Palladian windows that were covered in plexi glass will need to be removed and restored.
The chapel ceiling must be sanded and painted.
“It’s a true historic restoration in every sense of the word,” Marshal said.
The roof, however is in good condition. The pipe organ still works and the center plans to keep as much of the architecture and furniture as possible, including the pews, throne and candle holders. The Landmark Society of Cortland County is guiding the process to preserve historic artifacts. The old office will be turned to new bathrooms accessible to people with disabilities.
The buildings will also require new boiler and air ventilation system.
“The work is very equivalent [to the center], which is why I think we’re good candidates to restore the place because we have the knowledge,” Marshal said.
EXPECT SURPRISES
Russ Darr, president of Landmark Society, said he is one of many people who have played a role in preserving the building through the years. The Center for the Arts is a perfect fit for the church.
“The center has the experience because of what they’ve already done and they have the need for the space,” he said.
Preventing the building from completely falling apart required keeping the heating on.
“The building’s biggest challenge over the years has been when it wasn’t used at all for a large number of years and that’s never good for an old building,” Darr said.
“The steeple has been lowered twice,” Darr said. “It was once the tallest building on the green. It was lowered because of the weather.”
He expects a few surprises; he hopes they're good ones — historic paintings.
“There are some surprises there,” Darr said. “Under the paint in the walls inside, there are murals painted on the walls. It’s important to know that they’re there. There’s an upper ceiling above the ceiling and there is some decorative paint work up there that you can see if you climb up into the attic. There could be more surprises as work is being done and they move forward.”
EXPERIENCE MATTERS
Joe Cortese, the center's development coordinator and project manager, is featured in Hubbard’s YouTube series explaining the damages and what he learned from the contractors.
Cortese is a retired high school social studies teacher from Homer. He didn’t have any restoration or building experience other than working as manager of the family restaurant in Binghamton.
“I guess the first big project I worked on was redoing the basement [of the restuarant], which had a dirt floor,” Cortese said. “When I came to the center the way I came to it was as a board member maybe 10 or 11 years ago and we had a staff of three and I started realizing this place has a lot of needs that are not being met.”
Cortese helped with plumbing, fixing refrigerator fans and other things he noticed around the building. He was then the chairman of the board. Once he retired, he planned to go into real estate, but decided to stay on at the center. He resigned his position as board chairman and became the development coordinator. He oversaw the repaving of the parking lot.
“I ran the project and I really started to enjoy it and it was an amazing show of community support by the different contractors,” Cortese said. Together, they turned a $90,000 project into a $10,000 project.
READY FOR A CHALLENGE
When Marshal said the center would buy the little white church and Cortese would be in charge, Cortese said he was ready for a challenge.
“Best part of doing this for the center was the group of contractors,” Cortese said. “They work as a team. They’re all local and they look to each other and they help each other solve their problems.”
Complete Construction Concepts, Beard Electric, K&B Plumbing, Adhan Piping, Jerome R. Durr Studios and McKinney Masonry will work on the building once the funding is reached.
“The construction guys — I learned so much from them,” Cortese said. “They don’t just say ‘we gotta fix this,’ they explain, which is wonderful.”
Cortese said he sees the church as having tremendous potential.
“The way I feel about it reminds me a lot of when I was teaching how I felt about a lot of students,” Cortese said. “Great raw material. I could tell they’re intelligent. They may not be motivated. They may have things keeping them from reaching their potential, but I could see the potential there underneath all the layers of whatever they present.”
Cortese said each project he has worked on has been different. First the parking lot paving at the center, then the heating and cooling system at the center and now the whole church with the chapel and the community room.
“It’s going to take us two to three years, provided that we get the funding,” Cortese said.
One of the big grants that would help with the project is a $10 million state Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant the village has applied for.
"The center is thrilled to be able to use what we’ve learned to preserve and utilize the old ‘little white church’ as the cultural center — literally the cultural heart of Homer village," Cortese said.
