Fundraising goal of $150K for repairs to the congregation’s building, which was built 1914-15

On Jan. 29, a typical day turned into a tragedy for the Impact Center Providence congregation when the roof caught fire during routine construction. While the facade remains, the building —  located at 353 Elmwood Avenue — sustained significant damage. The steeple and sections of the roof collapsed, the interior was hollowed out by fire, windows were blown out, and there was considerable water damage to the building.

But the Impact Center Providence has persevered regardless.

The day after the fire, a youth prayer group gathered outside the building. The church leadership has already secured a temporary worship space at 184 Broad Street and is additionally working with their insurance company to restore their Elmwood Avenue building. On Sunday, just three days after the fire, the congregation gathered for Sunday worship.

Impact Center is also fundraising to purchase the Broad Street location to expand its services and programming in addition to stabilizing and rebuilding at 353 Elmwood Ave. A GoFundMe for the church restoration has already raised over $25,000, with a goal of $150,000.

Support Impact Center Providence:

GoFundMe: Faith in Action: Help Restore Impact Center Providence!

EIN (Tax ID): 05-0398821

Mailing Address:
Impact Center Providence AG
P.O. Box 2172
Providence, RI 02905

“We know this is not the end of our story,” Impact Center Providence’s Pastor Kpehe Percy Ballah said in a video on the congregation’s Instagram. “Even though our hearts are broken, we know that God is still moving and we will not allow this fire to stop us from serving people and bringing holistic transformation to many lives in this community because we are called to be here.”

Beyond regular services, Impact Center also holds a weekly soup kitchen, a food pantry, and a clothes closet for community members.

Prior to the fire, the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission (RIHPHC) was working with the Church to prepare a National Register nomination for the building for its architectural significance. The Commission deemed the property eligible for National Register status, and RIHPHC had recently awarded a Certified Local Government grant to the City to hire a consultant. The City had even selected a consultant — but work on the nomination itself had not begun before the fire broke out. 

The current church building at 353 Elmwood was built 1914-15. It has been home to several congregations and has served different populations throughout its lifetime as the demographics of the neighborhood have changed — from being a predominantly white congregation in the early 20th century, to growing to include Korean Americans in the 1960s and ’70s, and then becoming a predominantly Black church in the 1980s.

The Elmwood Temple & Elmwood Christian Church

Rev. Samuel S. Holiday organized a Sunday school in Elmwood in 1832 (or 1842, in other reports), which formally incorporated into the Elmwood Temple Congregational Church in 1851. The church moved to 353 Elmwood in 1867.

According to the Rhode Island Historical Preservation Commission, “the congregational church, the first church in Elmwood, was organized in 1851 and in that year built a small frame church at the northeast corner of Elmwood Avenue and Burnett Street. In 1867, the building was moved to 353 Elmwood Avenue and enlarged to four times its former size.”

Jill Moss, a member of Impact Center Providence and its leadership team, became interested in the history of the building and did some research into its past. “Having started in 2021, [Impact Center Providence] was the merger of two churches. One, a fledgling congregation, had been renting a space at Trinity United Methodist Church and needed a permanent home. The other, Providence Assembly of God Church, afforded the opportunity with its historic church building located at 353 Elmwood Avenue.”

“Ironically, the Elmwood Christian Church was also the result of a merger of the Broad Street Christian Church and the Elmwood Congregational Church on Sept. 20, 1912,” Moss wrote. The older building was demolished, and the new church was constructed from 1914-15. The building was designed by Gorham Henshaw, a local architect who specialized in church design. 

There were various pastors at the Elmwood Christian Church, though Rev. William G. Sargent was with the congregation for a considerable number of years and steered it through the construction of the new building. The brick, Tudor-style church cost $40,000 to build.

The interior had two floors, each lined with classrooms that had large doors that could be opened or shut during services. 353 Elmwood was an example of the Akron Plan, a church layout that allowed younger congregants to listen in for parts of services and then, when the doors were shut, Sunday school classes began. 19th-century Protestant churches at times had this layout.

On Jan. 12, 1926, the Providence Journal reported that the church was in “flourishing condition.” The congregation’s organist, Medora Ladeveze, celebrated 25 years with the church in 1937. “Since coming to the church to assume the post of organist in 1912, when the Elmwood Temple Congregational Church and the Elmwood Christian Church united to become the Elmwood Congregational Church, Miss Ladeveze had missed only one or two services during her 25 years as organist,” the Journal reported.

Elmwood Christian Church worshipped on Elmwood Avenue until about 1954 when declining membership and the introduction of a new church to the space led to the congregation’s closure.

First Presbyterian: 1954-1982

In 1954, the First Presbyterian Church of Providence — established in 1872 — was looking for a new home, since their previous building on Clifford Street was demolished to make way for I-95.

First Presbyterian flourished in the space for several decades. In the 1970s, with an influx of Korean immigrants to the Elmwood neighborhood, the church began to cater to a wider audience. In 1978, the Providence Journal reported that a third of the congregation — at the time, 280 people — were Korean. “Thanks to some electronic wizardry and the ingenuity of the church’s staff,” the leadership incorporated headphones with simultaneous translations of sermons so all members could understand one another.

Rev. William Silbert, the pastor of the church at the time, appointed Jong Sun Noh as an assistant pastor as part of an effort to integrate members “into a single community of faith at a time when other churches find it difficult to overcome the culture gap,” the Providence Journal reported.

“Several other churches in the country do it now, but I think we were ahead of most,” said Dr. Noh, a doctor in internal medicine at the Providence Veterans Administration Hospital and lecturer for Brown University. “We heard about it from a church in Florida that was doing it for one Korean-American member. But nobody else that we knew of was doing it in a big way. One reason is that it’s very hard to find a good interpreter. Not only does he have to know the language, he has to be versed in the Bible.”

Providence Assembly of God: 1982-2021

But in 1982, as the members of the First Presbyterian Church were increasingly moving to Cranston, the congregation relocated and sold its building to the Providence Assembly of God. “Under the leadership of the Rev. Courtnell Francois, a native of Tobago, West Indies, the church has grown to more than 80 members,” the Providence Journal reported Dec. 10, 1982. The church was the first predominantly Black Assembly of God church in Rhode Island.

Providence Assembly of God celebrated its 15th anniversary in 1996, and served the community in many ways — whether it be in prisons, with a soup kitchen program, or elder and youth programming, according to an article in the Providence Journal from Sept. 5, 1996.

“Providence Assembly of God began 15 years ago, with 31 members, and now has a membership of more than 300,” the Journal reported.

Rev. Charles Berkley Jr. took over as pastor of the church in 1997, and led the congregation until the merger with Impact Center Providence Church in 2021.

Looking Ahead for the Impact Center

Impact Center is now entering yet another chapter of the long history of this space and has not missed a beat despite the fire damaging the building.

Pastor Ballah told WPRI that the church’s community goes beyond the confines of a building’s walls. “This church is just a physical representation of the resilience that exists inside of us. I hope the steeple stands like we are standing strong,”  Ballah said. “But even if it collapsed I believe nothing is going to cause us to collapse.”

Impact Center Providence held services on Sunday in the Broad Street space. “We feel very hopeful and optimistic,” Pastor Ballah told NBC 10. “We’re still very saddened by the incident that happened with the construction fire, but yet, in this moment right now, we feel hopeful.”

By Katy Pickens / Planning & Preservation Writer / kpickens@ppsri.org

Update Feb. 6, 2025, 5:19 PM: This story has been updated to clarify that Impact Center Providence Church and the Providence Assembly of God merged officially in 2021, not 2019. Additional information about the pastor for the Providence Assembly of God was also added.