First Christian tower funding goal expected to be reached by weekend

Republic file photo Engineers inspect the First Christian Church tower in 2019. A fundraising drive to make needed repairs on the landmark is nearing its goal.

Leaders of the First Christian Church tower repair fundraising campaign believe they can complete the $3.2 million drive by Saturday with the needed $350,000 in added donations.

Or they can hit the mark at least by early January, said Jeff Logston. He’s the chairman of the First Christian Capital Projects Fundraising Committee that has worked alongside the Friends of First Christian Church Architecture and Landmark Columbus on the effort.

Indiana Landmarks, which has supported a wide range of projects in Columbus in the past decade alone, just announced the latest grant — $5,000.

The goal is to restore the partially cracking, 165-foot brick tower that rises above the Eliel Saarinen-designed church, the first Modernist structure in the city that spurred Columbus to become a big architectural destination.

An engineering study done in 2018 found that normal aging amid the elements had led to significant deterioration in the structure, especially the top third segment. That study highlighted that repairs ideally should be done within three to four years to keep the tower safe.

The study also revealed that the tower is twisting, shifting and pulling apart, according to Logston.

“This campaign definitely has been a path with God’s hand in it,” Logston said. “So I certainly don’t want to sell him short in this process.

“And there have been many great partners and friends within the congregation, within the community and outside the community who we originally had no idea were so interested in partnering with us.

“We understand that it’s a lofty goal to be fully funded by the end of the year. But with where we have come to date, raising $2.8 million, we feel that is a manageable goal.”

Community leaders have regularly reminded Bartholomew County residents since 2017 that steps taken toward refurbishing the 80-year-old church and its surroundings are a matter of preserving a huge part of the city’s Modernist legacy, and not connected to church’s ministry or spiritual mission.

Logston passed substantial credit the friends group, the fiscal agent of the Heritage Fund — the Community Foundation of Bartholomew County and the local foundation for solid teamwork on the effort.

“I believe that this has been God putting the right people in the right place at the right time,” Logston said. “Tracy Souza and the Heritage Fund and Richard McCoy and Landmark Columbus have been fantastic partners. This has been an absolute and collaborative project.”

McCoy serves as executive director of the Landmark Columbus Foundation.

“Where we sit today on this (drive) is really amazing,” McCoy said. “The amount of alignment of everything that we have seen with all this has been off the charts. And it truly feels like a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”

A total of $2 million of the campaign has come from beyond Bartholomew County, according to leaders.

Logston said the tentative timeline is for restoration work to begin in the spring and take about eight months to complete.

How to give

Go to saveourtower.org.