Following its purchase of the historic “Granite Church” at 5 North Main Street in Georgetown, the Redding-based Be Foundation is now pursuing multiple sources of both public and private funding to renovate the building to create an arts and cultural center for the community.
Category: News
BeFoundation Purchases Historic Church in Redding, CT
Redding, CT-based BeFoundation announced its purchase of the historic Georgetown Bible Church at 5 N Main Street in Redding, CT. Originally known as the Gilbert Memorial Church, it was completed in 1902. The granite for the beautiful Church was quarried next door in Branchville under the direction of geologists from Yale University.
Built in the Gothic Revival Style, the magnificent structure with its stained glass, tower and bell, has stood the test of time and will continue to do so following needed renovations. The Church has many features found in larger churches built in this style at that time, including buttresses and pointed arch windows, a square main tower, and a round turret with a conical roof. To the rear of the church is a small cemetery containing the graves of Edwin and Elizabeth Gilbert.
December 2022: What’s New at the Granite Church in Georgetown?
From financial plans to community engagement, we’re thrilled about the progress being made to bring the Granite Church to life and to fulfill its promise as an art and cultural gathering space for our community. We’re busy on many fronts and are excited to share an update as we close out 2022.
Public-Private Partnership Proposed
In November, BeFoundation submitted a proposal for a partnership with the Town of Redding to redevelop the Granite Church. The proposal includes a draft five-year financial plan spanning the construction phase to operations phase. You can review the full proposal and financial plan here. You are invited to send your ideas or feedback about the financial plan and how the Granite Church should be used as a community gathering place and performing arts center to granitechurch@befoundation.org.
Building Restoration Progress
Restoring a historic building takes time and special consideration. Recently, we stabilized the roof for the winter and we are working actively to select our architectural and construction partners, who will help us bring our vision for the Granite Church to life while maintaining the building’s historic integrity. We are also researching the use of state historic restoration funds to see if that is the best way to help fund some of the restoration work we have planned.
Making Room for Art, Music and Dancing
Since we will need flexible seating to accommodate potentially two stages, one on each end of the space, and room for a possible dance floor, the existing pews will need to be removed and rehomed. Instead, we will be looking at seating that can be folded, stacked, and stored. This will provide more room for dancing and increased seating and standing capacity for events. If you have interest in the pews or ideas for their disposition, please contact granitechurch@befoundation.org.
November Open House a Success
We were happy to see so many long-time Georgetown residents at our open house on November 20. We received many excellent ideas for uses of the Church — from art circles and holiday concerts to speaker series and ballroom dancing. We look forward to bringing these ideas to life in partnership with the community.
Special thanks to the Georgetown Village Restoration for arranging local vendors and kids’ activities like cookie decorating and touch-a-fire-truck. It was a great day to share the Granite Church and great music with the community.
Temporary Performance Art Installation: Wall of Sound x2
SpreadMusicNow partner, Anthony Coscia, has built a half-scale replica of the Grateful Dead’s Wall of Sound. (And it sounds amazing!) Also on display is the quarter-scale replica used for the “Zappa Meets the Dead” show.
Coscia’s passion project, “Le Petit Mur De Son,” is dedicated to rebuilding the Grateful Dead’s legendary Wall of Sound from 1974. Each in this series of Walls will be increasing in size until the full-scale wall is completed. The goal at completion is to make the Wall available to venues and musicians so that music fans can experience The Wall of Sound as they would have nearly 50 years ago. For more information go to https://www.spreadmusicnow.org/anthony-coscia.
