Pallone: Congress Approves $100,000 for the Restoration of the Church of the Presidents

Washington, D.C. --- The U.S. House of Representatives today approved a giant funding bill that included $100,000 for the restoration of the Church of the Presidents in Long Branch. The U.S. Senate is expected to pass the same bill later today.

U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) requested the federal funding earlier this year as part of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2005 Interior Appropriations Bill. The New Jersey congressman said the funds will be used to restore the Church of the Presidents, the only remaining structure in Long Branch associated with all seven of the U.S. Presidents who vacationed in the seaside resort during its Gilded Age. Presidents Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Harrison, McKinley and Wilson all attended services at this church.

In 1953, the Long Branch Historical Society Museum Association saved the church from demolition. Recently, the Association completed a nine-month stabilization project to save the building from collapse. And, earlier this week, the church's historic bell once again tolled after being cleaned for the first time since it was installed in 1879 thanks to the dedication and hard work of the Association.

"The years of hard work of the Long Branch Historical Society Museum Association are now being recognized as this national treasure will soon look as it did a century ago when American Presidents were frequent guests," Pallone said. "The funds approved today in Congress will be used for critical repairs and upgrades to the church's roofing, stained glass windows, and mechanical and electrical systems."

The federal funding came from the "Save America's Treasures" initiative that seeks to save America's threatened cultural treasures. The Church of the Presidents is listed on both the New Jersey and the National Registers of Historic Places.

The funds were included in a giant $388 billion spending bill that combines the Interior bill and eight other appropriations bills into one omnibus bill funding domestic programs and foreign operations for FY 2005, which officially began on October 1. The legislation now awaits the president's signature.