Yes. Cities Church is a registered 501(c)(3) organization, and all donations to the Steeple Project Fund are entirely tax deductible.

Designed by Emmanuel Louis Masqueray and completed in 1912, the 1524 Summit Ave building and its steeple have stood as an iconic landmark on Summit Avenue for over a century.

Helping restore the steeple is a tax-deductible way to preserve the rich history of Summit Avenue and keep our neighborhood beautiful.

Cities Church is committed to stewarding the building into the future. We need help to get the building back to a place where our congregation can sustainably maintain it for future generations.

With God’s help, we seek to raise funds both privately and publicly. The leadership team and members of Cities Church expect to take the lead in giving sacrificially to this project above and beyond our regular contributions to maintain the church’s operations.

As the impact and scope of this project is larger than just our congregation and its limited resources, we are also asking our neighbors on Summit Avenue and beyond to join us in preserving our historic building. To ensure transparency and accountability, we have set up a restricted fund to receive donations towards the project.

“Restricted funds” refers to money set aside for a specific purpose or project. Any funds given are legally required to be used for the stated purpose. Every dollar given will go directly to the design and construction costs for the project.

For Cities Church, this also means that our $1.2M fundraising goal is in addition to our regular operating budget.

The entire project is anticipated to span the summer construction period, concluding by the end of October 2024.

Any noise-producing work will be performed in accordance with current Saint Paul noise ordinances, typically between the hours of 8am and 4pm.

No work will be done on Sundays so as to not disturb worship services. For midweek events, the site foreman will be notified in advance so they can plan noise-producing work around events.

Various options, including demolition, rebuilding, selling, and postponement were considered.

All these were deemed impractical, too expensive, or not in line with our mission and vision as a church.

At the moment, no. All anticipated repairs will not interfere with north transept seating.

The repair and replacement of damaged stones on the bell tower should only need to be done once. However, as noted above, the repointing work is a cyclical maintenance item. With proper monitoring and maintenance, our design professionals are optimistic that the lifespan of the repointing will be close to 50 years.

No. The work on the bell tower and steeple is viewed as a single phase, due to the intricacies involved in tasks like removing tiles and erecting scaffolding.

It’s either all of it, or none of it.

Given our building’s age and the amount of deferred maintenance that has accumulated over the years, other portions of the building’s exterior envelope will require repair and repointing work in 2025 and beyond.

We are currently assessing the scope and cost of work needed with our design and construction professionals. We hope to catch up on all deferred maintenance over the next five years, prioritizing the most critical areas.