The following is a news release from St. Paul’s Communications Committee.

WINSTON-SALEM, NC (Mar. 12, 2019) – In the more than 90 years since St. Paul’s Episcopal Church laid its cornerstone at the intersection of Summit and Pilot View streets in downtown Winston-Salem, the church has played a leading role in establishing many of the city’s most important outreach efforts, including Crisis Control, what is now the Humane Society and, most recently, ReadWS. The energy and vibrancy behind those efforts is as strong as ever, and St. Paul’s is celebrating this spirit of community and service by launching its reNEWal capital campaign and undertaking nearly $9 million of renovations and improvements to ensure future generations have the facilities they need to worship, be in community and serve others.

“We chose ‘reNEWal’ for our campaign theme because it’s naming something that’s true at St. Paul’s. We are in a time of renewal, and it’s not simply numeric growth. It’s also about what is happening inside people and in our community,” said The Rev. D. Dixon Kinser, Rector at St. Paul’s. “There is a stirring of hunger for God and for faith and for church that is really amazing. It’s renewed energy to serve our community in bigger and better ways.”

Renovations will focus on the main church building at 520 Summit Street and the building across the street at 875 West Fifth Street, the former home of WSJS radio, which St. Paul’s purchased in 2016. The new building will create the added space St. Paul’s needs to expand its current community services and give room for new ones in the future.

A detailed renovation plan for the main church building, which was built in 1928 and designed by acclaimed architect Ralph Adams Cram, came after intensive diagnostic work by teams of experts in historic building and stained glass restoration and preservation. Their work included having experts rappel from the church’s highest points to catalog areas in need of repair. Restoration architect and St. Paul’s parishioner Joe Oppermann is overseeing renovations to the iconic neo-Gothic structure.

“At 90 years old, the building has been showing signs of some increasingly serious issues, particularly with water leaking in,” said Oppermann. “As a result of the diagnostic work done last spring, we know precisely what the issues are and can now plan how to best deal with them.”

Renovations to the property across the street will transform the interior space of this classic mid-century modern office building into bigger, better accommodations for St. Paul’s youth and outreach programs including ReadWS, Kids’ Café and the Backpack Program. St. Paul’s parishioner and architect Larry Robbs leads the work on this property.

Work on the main church building will begin in mid-March with scaffolding erected around much of the church exterior. Interior work at the property across the street is already underway. The work at 875 Summit Street will be completed by fall of 2019 and the renovations to the main church building will be completed by early 2020. Following the building renovations, St. Paul’s will make significant improvements to the church grounds including Dalton Memorial Garden on Summit Street.

“We could not be more excited to get this work started,” said Kinser. “We’re ready to build on the long-standing commitment here at St. Paul’s of serving this community.”