{"id":107196,"date":"2026-02-06T18:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T18:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/107196\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T18:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T18:38:09","slug":"historic-center-city-church-gets-massive-makeover-years-in-the-making","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/107196\/","title":{"rendered":"Historic Center City church gets massive makeover years in the making"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rev. Robin Hynicka took a chilly ride on a snow-covered construction lift up the side of Arch Street United Methodist Church last Wednesday afternoon. He clanked up metal stairs through five levels of scaffolding and ascended a ladder to emerge on a platform surrounding the marble cross topping the building\u2019s steeple.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Standing about 210 feet above the corner of Arch and Broad streets, he surveyed the view \u2014 William Penn looming over City Hall just to the south, Broad extending north to the horizon, a crowd of skyscrapers to the west \u2014 and recalled making his first visit to the top of the church last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cJokingly, someone said to me, \u2018That\u2019s probably the closest you ever got to God,\u2019\u201d Hynicka said with a grin. \u201cI said, \u2018No, I get close to God every day.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Arch Street United Methodist Church lead pastor Robin Hynicka at the stone cross on top of the church nearby Philadelphia\u2019s City Hall (Kimberly Paynter\/WHYY)<\/p>\n

He and his flock do that largely through worship, Bible study, and the advocacy work that is a hallmark of United Methodist congregations. The \u201cradically inclusive\u201d church provides space for social justice activists to hold meetings and runs a busy daily drop-in center that offers hygiene supplies, hot showers, health care and housing counseling for Center City\u2019s unhoused residents.<\/p>\n

But Hynicka said the church\u2019s ongoing, $6.7 million renovation project \u2014 which has kept the landmark, 155-year-old building<\/a> surrounded by scaffolding of one kind or another for nearly eight years \u2014 is also playing a critical role in Arch Street UMC\u2019s sacred work.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a unique place in the midst of the hospitality industry, municipal government and commerce, to be a symbol of equity, a symbol of justice, a symbol of loving kindness. We\u2019re also a center where folks gather to contemplate and prepare to act in ways that bring greater justice and equity into the world,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd if we don\u2019t maintain this building, that goes away.\u201d<\/p>\n

After several years of fundraising, the church finally launched construction last year. Workers erected the scaffolding, replaced or repointed deteriorating bricks, and started addressing damage from a 2024 electrical fire covered the interior with smoke and soot. When the weather improves, they\u2019ll replace the roof and fix worn exterior marble and buttresses.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Arch Street United Methodist Church had parts of their church pews transformed to honor the history of the church. (Kimberly Paynter\/WHYY)<\/p>\n

Hynicka said he\u2019s hoping the work will be largely finished by late spring, just ahead of his scheduled retirement in June, after 21 years at the church.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019ll be up to his successor and the congregation to do additional needed work \u2014 plastering, painting, replacing carpet and reconfiguring the main sanctuary \u2014 under the protection of the refurbished spire and newly installed slate roof.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s gratifying to know that it\u2019s not going to leak for 100 years. You have 100 years to get all that done over time,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s really a legacy I\u2019m glad I can leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

Key congregational support<\/p>\n

When Hynicka became Arch Street\u2019s pastor in 2004, he knew there was plenty of deferred maintenance to address, as there is at many of the city\u2019s historic religious sites<\/a>. The trustees ordered up an architectural master plan and raised funds to restore the main stained glass window on the sanctuary\u2019s south wall.<\/p>\n

In 2017, an inspection revealed problems with the external masonry and the church put up scaffolding over the adjacent sidewalks to protect passers-by while repairs were made, Hynicka said. <\/p>\n

An inspection of the steeple two years later, done in part with a drone, found loose tiles on the exterior, worn marble elements, and potential for spalling or chipping of bricks due to weakening mortar inside the cone of the spire.\u00a0While the structure was basically stable, the city issued safety citations that could have forced the building\u2019s closure. The church spent about $150,000 to install a giant net<\/a> over the building.<\/p>\n

\"\"Scaffolding built inside the Arch Street United Methodist Church during a multi-million dollar restoration. (Kimberly Paynter\/WHYY)<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was because of how long it was taking, really, to raise the money and to get all of the construction documents ready,\u201d Hynicka said. \u201cWe just did that extra measure of protection so that we could report out to the city that we were doing our due diligence. It\u2019s such a mammoth project to be able to raise that kind of money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Funding slowly trickled in. The Philadelphia-based National Fund for Sacred Places awarded the church a $125,000 matching grant and the state\u2019s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program provided another $1 million.<\/p>\n

But the bulk of the dollars \u2014 more than $5 million so far \u2014 ended up coming from Arch Street UMC\u2019s core congregation of about 70 members, and the 100-plus Sunday meal volunteers and others who make up the church community. Contributions exceeded expectations, allowing the church to add the roof replacement project.<\/p>\n

One member, who has chosen to remain anonymous, provided a crucial donation of more than $4 million, Hynicka said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the historic preservation, it\u2019s the community engagement work that we do, and it\u2019s the serving of our most vulnerable neighbors: those three points hit that person\u2019s sensibilities in a way that they wanted to make that kind of investment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A symbol of God\u2019s creation<\/p>\n

The construction firm CVMNEXT installed the tower scaffolding last fall. Its long steel legs pierce the sanctuary roof, fill a corner of the ornately decorated, high-ceilinged space, and go through the floor to rest on shoring props in the basement.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs disruptive as that looks, they\u2019ve made it the least disruptive we could possibly do it, because even downstairs, there\u2019s much of our daytime services, programming with unhoused, unsheltered neighbors,\u201d Hynicka said. \u201cThat has not been disrupted at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outside, the protective ground-level scaffolding, a fixture of the neighborhood over the previous seven years, was dismantled. The sidewalks at Arch and Broad were fenced off to create a construction staging area and barriers placed in the street to form a pedestrian path.<\/p>\n

\"\"Completed brick pointing along the spire of the Arch Street United Methodist Church during a multimillion restoration in 2026. (Kimberly Paynter\/WHYY)<\/p>\n

For months, workers took the lift up to the spire and climbed inside the structure to painstakingly restore the cone, project supervisor Mike McKain said during a tour Wednesday. \u201cThere\u2019s two layers of brick between this and the marble on the outside,\u201d he said, pointing to a newly built section of the interior wall. \u201cAll of it was repointed. Some of it was replaced.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

As he and Hynicka continued climbing up steps, the pastor pointed out boarded-up windows, buttresses, and worn marble ornamentation slated for repair once the weather improves.<\/p>\n

\"\"Arch Street United Methodist Church lead pastor Robin Hynicka gestures to the church\u2019s stone exterior high up on the scaffolding during a multi-million dollar restoration project. (Kimberly Paynter\/WHYY)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re waiting now to fabricate the marble rolls that go on the edge. Some of them are replaced completely, some of them are partially replaced,\u201d he said. \u201cNo two are the same, so you can\u2019t just create a template for one and manufacture all the ones you need. They are all different. Again, adding to the intricacy of the whole job.\u201d<\/p>\n

They reached the final platform, where a marble cross tops out the building, its tip reaching 218 feet above the street, not counting a lightning rod and a shiny red Christmas star McKain added at the request of Russ Alexander, president of the board of trustees.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The cross\u2019s four extended arms end in deeply weathered bulbs that Hynicka said may have once been animal faces or other sculptured figures. \u201cAll I know is it does symbolize sort of God\u2019s creation, and care for creation,\u201d he said. They will be removed and new marble pieces will be fashioned to replace them, McKain said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Arch Street United Methodist Church lead pastor Robin Hynicka climbs the scaffolding installed for a multi-million dollar restoration project. (Kimberly Paynter\/WHYY)<\/p>\n

A bird\u2019s-eye view panorama of Center City spread out around them. The scaffolding swayed slightly in the cold wind.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t get [a view] like this unless you work in a high-rise office building or can afford a pretty hefty rent, or own a condo on the top floor,\u201d Hynicka said. \u201cEven still, the unobstructed view of all of Arch Street east and west, a pretty much unobstructed view of Broad Street north and south\u2014 it\u2019s pretty phenomenal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rev. Robin Hynicka took a chilly ride on a snow-covered construction lift up the side of Arch Street…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107197,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[51589,14190,564,6451,94,51590,69,71,70],"class_list":{"0":"post-107196","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-arch-street-united-methodist-church","9":"tag-architecture","10":"tag-featured","11":"tag-historic-preservation","12":"tag-history","13":"tag-north-broad-street","14":"tag-philadelphia","15":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","16":"tag-philadelphia-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}