Historic church trying to fend off father time

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — St. Mary Catholic Church in Downtown Indianapolis is on the home stretch in a fund raising campaign to help with much needed repairs to the façade.

“In order to make the limestone adhere to the brick, they had to use these rods to drive into the brick and the limestone,” Helen Small, Co-Chair of the “Save The Steeples Campaign” said.

“Over the years with the intrusion of rain and ice and snow, etcetera, those rods became rusty and started pulling away,” Small added.

The church has raised $550,000 so far, and needs to raise another $50,000 by July 1st, to secure a $250,000 grant from the organization “Partners for Sacred Places.”

All of the money raised will go toward fixing the outside of the church, which was originally built in 1910. It is modeled after the gothic revival style architecture used to design most European churches.

“It has also been compared in an architectural decoration and integrity to the St. Patrick’s cathedral in New York City,” Small said.

If you’d like to donate to the campaign click here.