Historic Cleveland church with Civil Rights ties receives $750K grant: 'gift from God'

By Samantha Kamman, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, October 13, 2026

Members of a nearly 200-year-old church where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke from the pulpit months before his assassination recently learned it had received a $750,000 grant to help preserve the building, a blessing that the church’s pastor called “a gift from God.” 

Founded in 1849, Shiloh Baptist Church moved into its current location at 5500 Scovill Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1926. The building is considered a historic landmark and was originally built as a Jewish temple in 1906 for the B’nai Jeshurun congregation, according to the Cleveland Restoration Society.

Because the congregation is small, the church has struggled to maintain the building, the Rev. Lisa Goods, the church’s first female senior pastor, told News 5 Cleveland.

The foundation beneath the building’s large columns is buckling and some stained-glass windows are warping, WKYC reported.

Goods explained that the $750,000 the church received from the National Park Service’s African American Civil Rights Grant Program was a relief, adding that it has been a “long struggle.” 

“This grant was just a gift from God in our plan not only to sustain our congregation, but to serve the city of Cleveland,” the pastor said. 

According to Goods, the congregation has served as a gathering place for African Americans and the Cleveland community as a whole. During the Great Migration, Shiloh served as a place of asylum, and the church also played a role in the Civil Rights Movement.

In 1967, King preached from the church’s pulpit, speaking about the Vietnam war and encouraging it to support efforts like Operation Breadbasket and protest Sealtest’s treatment of African Americans, Goods said. 

The church also helped rebuild homes that were burned to the ground during the Hough Riots in 1966. Actress and singer Dorothy Dandridge, who was born in Cleveland in 1922, was a member of the Shiloh Baptist Church, according to Goods.

Dandridge’s career in the arts included performing in the singing group “The Dandridge Sisters,” and later she became the first African American woman nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her title role in the 1954 film “Carmen Jones.”

“During the Harlem Renaissance, Shiloh hosted the arts,” Goods said, “and she credits this place as her very first performance.”

In an Oct. 1 statement on its website, the church said that “[r]ehabilitation addresses structural damage to the grand portico; plaster repair due to water-driven deterioration; the addition of air conditioning for better climate control; and accessibility upgrades.”

“The grant will also allow the National Register Nomination, first completed in 1982, to be updated to include the history of Shiloh Baptist Church and the congregation’s role in the Civil Rights Movement,” the statement continues. “The project is being managed by Cleveland Restoration Society, and work will be carried out by qualified preservation contractors.”

The Cleveland Restoration Society partnered with the church on its application for the grant, News 5 Cleveland reported.

Margaret Lann, director of preservation services at the Cleveland Restoration Society, confirmed that restoration work is expected to begin in early 2027, WKYC reported. The Cleveland Restoration Society received the grant and is managing the three-year project.

“There’s no other building like Shiloh in Cleveland,” Lann stated.

In a statement to News 5 Cleveland, Lann said that the church proved its eligibility for the grant by demonstrating its commitment to the community through its various programs focused on health services, food accessibility and other services.

“Ann Doten, our director of advancement, she and I partner together with the churches, collecting the scopes of work, detailing not only the history and the architecture of the building, but all of the current programming,” Lann said. “Why should this church be eligible for such a substantial grant? Well, they need to show that they're very active, maybe not necessarily a huge congregation, but an integral part of the community.”