Manzanola United Methodist Church Receives National and State Grant Funding

Description: The Manzanola United Methodist Church is one of 35 organizations in 22 states to receive a total of $4 million in grant funding to advance long-term and sustainable strategies that strengthens stewardship and asset management, interpretation and programming and fund raising activities for historic Black Churches across the country.

Manzanola United Methodist Church receives National and State Grant Funding

Preserving Black Churches and History Colorado-State Historical Fund Recipient

The Manzanola United Methodist Church (MUMC) has received $100,000 from the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, a Program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. This funding is a part of the Action Fund’s Preserving Black Churches program. The MUMC also has received a $250,000 grant from History Colorado-the State Historical Fund. These two grants will be used for critical roof repairs and exterior wood rehabilitation and the initial phase of restoration of the Church’s historic stain glass windows.

The MUMC is one of 35 organizations in 22 states to receive a total of $4 million in grant funding to advance long-term and sustainable strategies that strengthens stewardship and asset management, interpretation and programming and fund raising activities for historic Black Churches across the county.

This program works to uplift the legacy of often-overlooked Black Churches, ensuring their capacities to serve the spiritual and social needs of their communities for years to come.

To preserve and uplift America’s historic places, the Lilly Endowment Inc. and the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund are investing in a $20 million initiative to help historic Black churches and congregations reimagine, redesign, and redeploy historic preservation to address the institutions’ needs and the cultural assets and stories they steward.

The African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund is a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation in partnership with the Ford Foundation, The JPB Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and other partners, working to make an important and lasting contribution to our cultural landscape by elevating the stories and places of African American resilience, activism, and achievement.

History Colorado’s State Historical Fund was established by the 1990 constitutional amendment legalizing gambling in three mountain community. By a vote of Coloradoans, the amendment mandated that a portion of gaming tax revenue be used to fund historic preservation projects throughout Colorado.

The MUMC was completed in 1908 at a cost of $9,000 and became closely intertwined with the African American community who moved to southeast Colorado to homestead south of Manzanola in an area called “The Dry.”  Beginning in 1915, the first of approximately 50 families arrived at The Dry and some began attending the Church, vacation bible schools, and related events.  Although the challenges of the 1930s led many residents of The Dry to seek jobs in other areas, some families remained and retained their homestead properties, while others returned post-1960s.

These African American residents attended the Manzanola Methodist Church, which became their spiritual home, and increasingly the history of the Church and The Dry became intertwined.  Today, descendants of The Dry make up the majority of the congregation and the Church is at the center of family reunions and gatherings for The Dry.

To learn more about the NTHP program and the 2023 grant recipients, visit

SavingPlaces.org/BlackChurches.

More information on the State Historical Fund cam be found at

www.historycolorado.org/about-state-historical-fund

Related Content:

Settlers Sunnyside Homestead Became The Dry, Colorado

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Photos Courtesy of Otero Historic Preservation

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