Mount Pleasant’s St. John’s Episcopal wins a $54,000 Sacred Places grant to restore its altar wall and stained glass, and must match it

MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. — St. John’s Episcopal Church, the white brick church with red doors at Maple and Washington streets, has won a $54,000 grant from the National Fund for Sacred Places to restore the area around its altar wall and repair the stained-glass windows of its historic building.

The congregation has pledged to raise another $54,000 to match it, according to the church’s announcement, posted Wednesday by Episcopal News Service. The National Fund is a program of Partners for Sacred Places, run with the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

One of 30 nationwide. St. John’s is the only Michigan congregation on the list of 30 grantees the National Trust announced Oct. 20. The 2026 group was picked from 466 applicants and will share more than $9 million in capital grants of up to $500,000 each, along with planning help and technical assistance. Since it began, the fund has awarded or pledged more than $42 million to 197 congregations of 29 faith traditions, the church’s announcement says.

What the match means. The grants are not a blank check. Under the fund’s application rules, every grant needs a one-to-one cash match, and only money raised after a congregation is accepted counts toward it. Half of the grant is paid once the match is pledged or raised and the congregation has permit-ready construction plans and bids in hand; the other half comes after the finished work is reviewed and approved. All work must follow the federal Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation, and no grant-funded work can begin until the fund’s staff signs off.

A gift from one family. A parish history written in 1991 by William T. Bulger says the cornerstone was laid on Oct. 19, 1882, on a lot given by Gen. Dwight May. Lawyer and lumberman William Brown and his wife paid the whole cost, about $4,300, with bricks from Brown’s own yard and lumber cut at his mill. The Elizabethan Gothic church was finished in December 1883, consecrated in January 1884 and opened with four stained-glass windows and two prism chandeliers. In 1908 the parish enlarged it to its present size, adding the rounded sanctuary at the altar end.

It nearly didn’t survive. From 1918 to 1936 the parish had no resident priest, and the Women’s Guild kept it going by renting out the rectory and holding bake and rummage sales, the history says. In November 1922 a member reported the church “in a dilapidated condition,” and the women had the walls repaired with steel rods so the building would not collapse.

The church calls itself the oldest Mount Pleasant church building still in use. It received a state historical marker in 1972 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. The Rev. Sr. Diane Stier has been rector since 2020, according to the parish.

How to help. Information about the parish, its services and how to reach it is on the church’s website, stjohnsmtpleasantmi.com. The full list of this year’s grantees is posted by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Sources:
St. John’s Episcopal Church announcement via Episcopal News Service, “Michigan church receives National Fund for Sacred Places grant” (amount, match, altar wall and stained glass, fund totals), https://episcopalnewsservice.org/pressreleases/michigan-church-receives-national-fund-for-sacred-places-grant/
National Trust for Historic Preservation, “National Fund for Sacred Places to Award More Than $9 Million to 30 Congregations,” Oct. 20, 2026 (grantee list, 466 applicants), https://savingplaces.org/press-center/media-resources/grants-awarded-to-preserve-30-historic-religious-properties-2026
National Fund for Sacred Places, 2026 full application form (match rules, disbursement, Secretary of the Interior’s Standards), https://www.fundforsacredplaces.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/2026-Full-Application-Form.pdf
William T. Bulger, “Full History of the St. John’s,” 1991, via St. John’s Episcopal Church, https://stjohnsmtpleasantmi.com/full-history-of-the-st-johns/
St. John’s Episcopal Church, “Our History” (oldest church building still in use, 1972 marker, 1982 National Register, rector), https://stjohnsmtpleasantmi.com/our-history/
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places record 82002842, https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/82002842
Photo: rossograph, “St. John's Episcopal Church - Mt. Pleasant.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped and color-adjusted, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St._John%27s_Episcopal_Church_-_Mt._Pleasant.jpg

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Tags: Mount Pleasant · Churches · Historic Preservation · Faith · Grants