One of the earliest projects in the renovation and new construction at Emmanuel Episcopal Church was the replacement of the lead framing within the stained glass windows in the worship area, which were placed as part of the original structure built in 1907. Photos submitted
Emmanuel Episcopal's New, Renovated Facilities Ready To Welcome Community by David Dinsmore
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mmanuel Episcopal Church at 501 N. Broadway has finished much of the remodeling and new construction the parish has been discussing for more than a decade, and Fr. Tom Dahlman looks forward to when parishioners, civic groups and those in need in the community will be able to use them to their full potential. The project may still have a few elements to complete, but Dahlman – rector of Emmanuel Episcopal – said the results of the large portion of the work are impressive and beyond what he imagined they would be. Between what was added to the original structures and the new building, the church was able to incorporate 8,000 new square feet to its facilities. This includes a former lawyer building next door that will now be used for their outreach ministries. Some of these programs are geared toward their neighbors experiencing homelessness and those with critical needs and include things like meal service. Dahlman said that they are currently able to
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give away about 65 sack lunches per weekday for the community, and they also host a monthly breakfast at their campus. Some of the new facility was built on to the existing footprint of the building at its corner site occupied by the church. The parishioners have been talking for almost 15 years about expanding, Dahlman said, but they wanted to make sure they did it in the right way. "They'd not settled on a design, but they had been talking about fixing the building,” Dorman said. "The building was constantly full when we had gatherings.” "The goal was to have more outreach space but also more space for the youth and the children to grow." One of the features of the old building was a cinder block structure that served as a nursery area when first built in the 1940s. As time passed, it became more of a multipurpose building for other things that the church offered, and eventually became so
In addition to duplicating the woodwork in the parish hall of the church’s original structure, the designers and builders kept consistency with other elements such as the window in the foreground of this photo, which match the windows of the original 1907 structure seen in the background.
