She took the job anyway, determined to keep the ministry alive. Founded in 1907, the church that drew President Warren G. Harding to a building groundbreaking ceremony during the early 1920s still had an important role to play in the neighborhood, she said — even if that role needed to change.
Now, a $30 million renovation of the 50,000-square-foot building is under way. Her church has joined forces with The District Church, a younger congregation nearby, to form a nonprofit that will restore and share the space inside National Baptist, breathing life into the timeworn landmark that is listed on the city’s registry of historic sites.
