 What's New at CCCC Evelyn Marcha-Hidalgo is our 2007 Beacon Award Winner! Centennial Gala a huge success! Gables Restored - Thanks to You! Spring Arts Festival = Success! Be sure to check the CCCC calendar for the most up-to-date event information. ******** Evelyn Marcha-Hidalgo is our 2007 Beacon Award Winner******** Click here to read more about the award and Ms. Marcha-Hidalgo's amazing accomplishments. ******** Fall 2007 Newsletter!******** After exterior construction was complete in the fall of 2006, Calvary’s 48th Street gardens were nothing but mud and tank tracks from the big lifts. But just look at the gardens now! Many thanks to Michael Williams, the 48th Street neighbors, and University City Green, Calvary’s garden blooms again! In fact, Calvary’s gardens were so pretty this summer that people were actually taking pictures! ******** Fall 2007 Newsletter!******** Download or view the Fall 2007 edition of CCCC's newsletter. Click here. ******** Centennial Gala a Huge Success!******** The Calvary Centennial Gala was held September 16, 2006. It was a fundraiser, and a very successful one at that, but it also was, by all accounts, an evening which will long and fondly be remembered by the well over 200 who attended the affair. The evening offered something, or several somethings, to please every palate. It was duly noted that no one had ever seen the community so dressed up for a party! For the serious minded, there was the announcement of the occasion itself, the beautiful centennial commemorative guide book souvenir, and the superlative opera recital by the neighborhood’s own incomparable Cecelia Chaisson, which took the audience in the dome-lit chapel by storm. But beyond the solemn side of the occasion, the gala was a party extraordinaire! Delicious gourmet food from many local restaurants delighted the senses of taste and smell, and a lively silent auction with some of the most exciting items auctioned off live created full-blown cacophony in the downstairs gym transformed by decoration into an elegant, romantic setting, and for those who needed a quieter venue, the outdoor scene was one of intimate conversations and laughter on the lawn, served up with amazing coctails and spirits at the bar (and off the premises!) To cap off the affair, the resident Curio Theatre’s improv comedy sent them home laughing! It was a celebration for a magnificent building once thought lost but now being saved. But more than that, it was a celebration for a uniquely University City redevelopment experiment that has given new life to the building, not just as an ecumenical sacred space, but as a functioning community center and venue for culture and the arts as well, all under one vast roof. It was, truly, a celebration of the community, by the community and for the community, at its best. ******** Masonry Repairs, 2006! ******** The Calvary building underwent major masonry replacements this summer. From the top of the tower to the basement level, about half of the stone pointing is being replaced all over the building. This is the first masonry overhaul the building has had in its hundred year history. Cost is $178,000. The work is being done by Premier Building Restoration, Inc., who also reconstructed the gables in 2005. Premier started the work in April and finished in September. This major exterior repair was made possible by a $100,000 grant from Keystone and Partners for Sacred Places, and a $50,000 anonymous donation, and other grants, particularly by Claniel Foundation, and other individual donations. ******** Volunteers Spruce Up CCCC! ******** Volunteers from the Mid-Atlantic Student Movement painted the standing display board on 48th Street in the red, black and gold color scheme used on the new outdoor signage and then went on to apply the same colors to the main entrance at the corner of 48th and Baltimore. This group performed a similar community service project last year helping to restore some historic porches on S. 45th Street and asked the University City Historical Society to locate another such local worksite. Calvary was one of two West Philadelphia locations served by the group in 2005. Pictured at work renewing the Calvary doors are Lutheran students from Towson University, Baltimore; Muhlenberg College, Allentown; Centenary College, Hackettstown; Kutztown University, Kutztown; the Lutheran Theological Seminary, Mt. Airy; and Drexel University and the University of Pennsylvania, University City. Calvary thanks them, UCHS and the University City District for making the arrangements for this "Gift to the Streets" from the Calvary Center and hopes they will be coming back next year for another service day in the neighborhood. ******** Lighting the Avenue! ******** Thanks to grants from Citizen's Bank and the University City District, CCCC is implementing special lighting for the incomparable Tiffany windows. These lights will illuminate the windows from the interior at night, literally putting artistic masterpieces on the nighttime streetscape at Baltimore Avenue and 48th Street. Through the same funding, CCCC is puchasing three street lights which complement the vintage architecture. One light will be placed at the corner of 48th and Baltimore, and the other two lights will be placed one length down each street, lighting the sidewalks, the new garden, the signage below, and the tower above. This will create an exquisite and welcoming beauty mark for Baltimore Avenue and the surrounding community. But we still need your help! CCCC estimates the electricity will cost $200 a month. We just need to raise the money to pay for two years of electricity before the lights become a reality. That's less than $5,000. Help CCCC keep the lights shining at our Community Beacon. Support CCCC today! ******** Gables Restored - Thanks to You! ******** Over the years, a number of professional architectural and engineering studies were done in order to assess the deteriorated condition of the Calvary UMC Church Building and to make recommendations for its restoration. Reconstruction of the Tiffany window gables was identified as the most significant structural problem. A potential hazard to pedestrians, the gables' displacement could also have caused irreparable harm to the Church Building and the two magnificent Tiffany window ensembles in the main sanctuary below. Several methods were considered for correcting the problem, but after much consultation with other experts, the engineering consultant, John Holland of Holland Architects Ltd, concluded that the only way to secure the gables was to completely dismantle them, stone-by-stone, build a reinforcement, and then reconstruct the gable stone walls. Almost without a hitch, both the Baltimore Avenue and 48th Street gables were reconstucted, in under a year's time, at a cost of $407,000. The importance of the success of this project cannot be stressed enough. Completing the gables repair has made it possible to begin restoration of the sanctuary space, and has also allowed CCCC and its partners to continue to grow and support programs and events, all to the benefit of our community. The Trustees of Calvary United Methodist Church and the Board of the Calvary Center for Culture and Community wish to express sincere gratitude and thank all organizations and community members who contributed the financial support, without which this milestone progress could not have been made. Those patrons include: Government
State Grant from State Rep. James Roebuck ******** Spring Arts Festival = Success! ******** The Calvary Spring Arts Festival was a huge success. We'd like to thank all the community for sharing in this wonderful experience. Community members enjoyed performances of the original Curio Theatre Company play, The Frog Prince, as well as a Shakespeare workshop for teens, taught by Curio's classically trained artists. Crossroads Music Series showcased stellar perforamces and the The Society for Creative Anachronism presented Renaissance Fencing and Renaissance Dance to the enjoyment of all. Timothy Martin hosted a Poetry Workshop for Children and Teens and an Open Poetry Reading. Calvary also teamed up with Lea Elementary School to showcase tomorrow's artists, today. The University City Historical Society's Trolley Tour and House Tour were very successful and enjoyed by all who participated. Visit www.uchs.net for more information. And if that weren't enough, the community had the chance to meet the Spiral-Q Puppets as they search for a new home. Be sure to check back often to see what's going on at CCCC!
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Evelyn Marcha-Hidalgo is our 2007 Beacon Award Winner!
The Calvary Garden Blooms Again!
Our Community Celebrates Calvary's Centennial!
Masonry Repairs at Calvary
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each image to see Volunteers Spruce Up CCCC! Click on
each image to see
Lighting the Avenue
Artist's Rendition
CCCC - Gables Project complete!
Spring Arts Festival Click
on each image to see
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