415 Walnut Collective Fund Established with CFNEIA to Revitalize Historic Walnut Street Baptist Church
CFNEIA
June 23, 2022
The 415 Walnut Collective Fund has been established with the Community Foundation of Northeast Iowa to support the revitalization of the historic Walnut Street Baptist Church, located at 415 Walnut Street in Waterloo.
The church is an architectural treasure built in 1907 by Waterloo architect Clinton P. Shockley. The building has been home to the Walnut Street Baptist congregation and the Faith Temple Baptist congregation and was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. The church’s most recent congregation moved to a new location in 2010 and the building has remained vacant since that time. In 2019, Iowa Heartland Habitat for Humanity purchased the church to hold and protect the building while community stakeholders collaborated to form the 415 Walnut Collective. In an effort to preserve, renovate and revitalize the space, the Collective began the visioning process and developed a reuse plan to bring the community’s new vision of the building to life.
“The sentiment of many throughout our community is that the historical significance of the Walnut Street Baptist Church Building is iconic to Waterloo, and an important locale for Iowa,” said Matthew Gilbert, Esq., co-chair of the 415 Walnut Collective. “There is a strong vision for this building, the Walnut neighborhood and the greater Waterloo community. The Collective’s hope with establishing this fund is to increase awareness and support for the building revitalization efforts, while demonstrating good stewardship and shared impact for the entire community.”
Contributions to the 415 Walnut Collective Fund will assist the capital campaign project to support community engagement and rehabilitation costs for the Walnut Street Baptist Church building. The vision is for the building to serve as a public space for the community where people can gather to enjoy, learn and celebrate culture through art, music, food and history.
“Revitalization is important to keeping our communities healthy, vibrant places,” said Kaye Englin, president and CEO of the Community Foundation of Northeast Iowa. “Plans for this project have been years in the making and the Foundation is excited to see this community vision unfold.”
CFNEIA will serve as the fiscal sponsor for this special project fund.
Financial gifts to support the 415 Walnut Collective can be made to the Community Foundation of Northeast Iowa, 3117 Greenhill Circle, Cedar Falls, IA, 50613. Checks should be made payable to the 415 Walnut Collective Fund. Gifts can also be made on the Community Foundation’s secure website at fund.cfneia.org/415walnutcollective. Donors to the fund can take advantage of normal federal deductions for charitable gifts.
More information about the 415 Walnut Collective can be found on their website at walnutbaptistwaterloo.com or on Facebook at facebook.com/415WalnutCollective.
Questions about giving to the fund may be directed to Kaye Englin, president and CEO with the Community Foundation of Northeast Iowa, at 319-243-1350 or kenglin@cfneia.org.
