Grand Island Cultural Center moves to new role

Article and Photos By Karen Carr Keefe

Senior Contributing Writer

The Grand Island Cultural Center is entering phase II of its transformation from the Old St. Stephen Church to a community center for all.

The center could open to the community groups this fall, if all goes according to plan, said architect and St. Stephen parishioner Frank Burkhart, who has been on the project since Day 1.

Burkhart said there will be a grand-opening party sometime this summer.

Phase I consisted of a basement makeover. It now has a multipurpose room with a hospitality center. The room retains some of the cherished features of the church that was built in 1862 – for example, the top of the old stone walls are visible and the pillars below are made from the front walls of the wooden church pews that were on the level above. The latter reuse was Burkhart’s idea.

Volunteer Don Scalise stripped the wood and sanded it down into the pillars in the basement community room, Burkhart said.

There’s an elevator between lower and upper floors. Also completed from the phase I punch list: an administrative office, four bathrooms, security cameras and a space for the Grand Island Neighbors Foundation food pantry.

“It’s just wrapping up right now. We had the floor installed downstairs. This past week they finished up,” Burkhart said. It’s a handsome vinyl plank throughout.

“We still have to do trim work and things like that.”

Phase II has taken the working volunteers outdoors to rebuild stairs to the main floor of the center, and to reconstruct a passageway and put in a driveway on the right side of the former church building.

To accomplish this major makeover, the GICC, as it is called, has counted on the help of dedicated volunteers and donors.

The initial seed money for the makeover originates from the Grand Island Catholic Club’s 2023 sale of the Knights of Columbus Hall at 1841 Whitehaven Road to James Panepinto, president of Pinto Construction Services Inc.

The Catholic club currently holds a 25-year, $1 lease for the Old St. Stephen Church. In May, it was learned that Osteria Catering plans to renovate the former Knights Hall into a banquet facility.

Volunteers work Saturday, June 21, to transform St. Stephen Old Church into a community cultural center. The goal is to provide a meeting space for community groups.

••••••••

The Knights is one of the current big three community groups that each have representatives on the board of directors and will be using the revamped center, at 2106 Baseline Road, once all the work is complete. The other two are the Grand Island Neighbors Foundation and Boy Scout Troop 630.

Other groups are welcome to make arrangements to use the completed center for meetings, activities and events.

The core workers are on the job Saturdays. They are completing the process of repurposing the old church – decommissioned by the Buffalo Catholic Diocese – into a new community resource.

“We’re working now to get donations and grants. One parishioner’s gift has powered a lot of the ongoing work to restore the front steps of the building. She saw Chris (Beyer) working one day, came over and asked what we were doing, and was generous enough to make a $10,000 donation,” Burkhart said.

“We have a 501 (c)(3) (nonprofit status), but we’re kind of rebranding,” Burkhart said of the current leaseholder, the Grand Island Catholic Club. “We’re going to have a club that is basically community members who are interested in supporting not-for-profits and charitable organizations on the Island. And the idea would be that, as a member of the club, you get on the mailing list and find out when different organizations are holding fundraisers or doing things that help the community.”

Burkard said membership would entail very modest annual dues that go to the upkeep of the center.

“We will be having members-only parties and parties for the general public,” he said. “It’s kind of expanding what we used to do over at 1841 Whitehaven, at the Knights (Hall).”

He added that other groups have expressed interest in helping. These include the Grand Island Rotary Club, which is on board to do gardening, once the exterior work is complete.

Also, Burkhart said John Smith of the Abraxas Inc. helped by restoring the metal roof on the building.

The buzzing and whining of construction machines filled the air inside and out as a half-dozen workers got into the swing of things this past Saturday. The large front stairway, deemed unsafe, was the top priority. The old wood was removed, as well as very large stones once part of that main entrance.

“We shored it up, put steel columns in and we’re putting in concrete stairs,” Burkhart said.

He was a carpenter when he went to architecture school, so the kind of work needed to revamp the church was not unfamiliar to him.

“Some architects build and draw,” Burkhart said.

“Our goal is to have the upstairs be used for things that actually generate income, and that income is what we use to sustain the building for the not-for-profits so they can utilize the building for their charitable work.”

They are starting to get quotes for doing the upstairs floor and repainting the church.

“What we’d really like to do is get people to donate to repair the windows,” Burkhart said, especially the highly regarded Rose Window.

“Our goal is to have Neighbors Foundation and the Scouts moved out of the upstairs by fall” and into their respective designated spots near the all-purpose community room downstairs, Burkhart said. He added the stairs and the concrete work are targeted for fall completion, as well.

“We are tracking our budget for this to see what we can afford as far as the driveway goes,” Burkhart said. “Our main goal is to make it so that the upstairs is able to be accessed and used safely.

“We’re going after grants, but we really need to get donations to be able to repaint the church, replace the floor, and do something with the windows. Once we get major milestones done, we should be able to look forward to actually holding events.”

To help with the renovation effort, email giculturalcenter@gmail.com or call 716-773-4752.

Work is needed to stabilize the Rose Window inside what was the historic Old St. Stephen Church, now being transformed into the Grand Island Cultural Center.