In 1855, Milwaukee architect James Douglas designed a gothic-revival style church on Capitol Square to house Madison’s oldest Christian congregation: Grace Episcopal Church. One hundred and seventy years after breaking ground, much has changed around West Washington Avenue. But inside, remarkably little is different.
Its walls are still made of limestone blocks. Its pews are original, flanked by a series of stained glass windows featuring Apostles and events from Jesus’ life. But maintaining a church with this much history is something Grace’s rector, Rev. Dr. Jonathan Grieser, called a “huge challenge.”
This summer, Grace will undertake a $1.5 million project to replace its slate roof, spearheaded by parishioner and structural engineer Fred Groth. Groth has worked on restoration projects at the state Capitol in the past and recently led the restoration of the Memorial Union at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“He’s put an enormous amount of time into it on a volunteer basis, alongside his regular job, and we probably couldn’t do it without him,” Grieser said.
Grace’s slate roof has been an issue. After a restoration in 1980, the roof was meant to survive the next 100 years. But now, after just 45 years, it needs to be replaced, with infrared imaging from a drone pinpointing significant leaks.
Maintaining a historic church comes with other structural challenges, like restoring Grace’s limestone walls. Limestone is porous and erodes over time, meaning Grace has to repair its walls roughly every decade. Grieser said they just repaired the lowest 10 feet of limestone around the building and coated it with a solution to protect from road salt erosion. About 15 years ago, after losing access to the original locally-sourced limestone, Grace bought several tons of similar stone from an Indiana quarry. This supply is currently stacked in a church alley for future restorations.
After significant deterioration, Grace also had to rebuild a portion of its bell tower in the 1990s.
Grieser hopes to complete the project by the fall. The church also has plans to restore its courtyard gardens in 2026.
Grace’s future ‘in God’s hands’
Maintaining a church’s physical integrity for 170 years is one thing. Maintaining its congregation is another.
For centuries, the Episcopal Church was “closely linked” to the “centers” of political and economic power in the United States, Grieser said.
Founding fathers like George Washington, James Madison and James Monroe were part of the broader Anglican tradition. Decades later, Presidents Grover Cleveland and Harry S. Truman, themselves Christians, each paid visits to Grace. In 1976, the church was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Now, Grieser’s congregation is smaller and skews older than previous generations.
“The reality is mainline Christianity is in decline in the U.S.,” Grieser said.
Still, Grace does draw some parishioners from diverse backgrounds, including college students, African immigrants and Christians from other denominations.
“One of the things that attracts people is, of course, folks who are Roman Catholic who are uncomfortable with the stances on marriage, on divorce and gay marriage and ordination of women find themselves drawn to the Episcopal Church because we maintain the traditional liturgy, but we're much more open theologically to diversity,” Grieser said.
That diversity, as well as their historical links to the Catholic Church, Grieser said, is part of the reason Grace has been able to keep its doors open for so long.
“It’s the beauty of the worship to folks, the connection with the tradition but also the willingness to be open to diversity and to change and the combination of tradition and change, I think, is the genius behind our tradition,” Grieser said.
As for Grace’s future, he admitted it hasn’t been easy for his church, especially in recent years.
“The pandemic changed everything for everybody, but it really had an impact on organized religion. That’s been a real challenge in so many ways. People got out of the habit of going to church,” Grieser said.
But Grieser pointed to the church’s significant endowment, and the city’s vibrancy, as reasons for hope.
“It’s unique in some respects because we have the financial resources that a lot of places don’t have, so there’s no danger of it closing like so many others,” Grieser said. “Partly because, of course, we’re in a city that’s growing — unlike a lot of places — there’s a lot of potential for growth as well.”
As for future generations, Grieser said he’s confident Grace will continue to be a Madison staple for years to come.
“I’m not worried about the future of the Church because it’s not in our hands, it’s in God’s hands,” he said.
Nick Bumgardner is the features editor for The Daily Cardinal. He previously covered state news and politics as a senior staff writer. You can follow him on Twitter at @nickbum_.
