Provo Community Church gathering funds for renovation, restoration

PROVO — The Provo Community Congregational United Church of Christ has been located along University Avenue for more than 100 years. However, many Provo residents and visitors have told church leadership that they have never actually been inside.

"So many people say, 'Oh, I've never been in your church,'" said Dave Lewis, the church's council moderator, music director and organist.

The congregation was founded as the Provo Congregational Church in 1891, eventually uniting with the local Methodist Episcopal Congregation in 1919. It later became affiliated with the United Church of Christ, according to Lewis, but did not have a dedicated worship space for 33 years.

Construction

In 1922, a woman named Meno Trope left $30,000 to the congregation for education and a community space — which would be worth approximately $600,000 in 2026. The funds provided by Trope helped construct a church building.

City leaders approved the proposed building site near 200 North and University Avenue near Provo's downtown business district. Two years after receiving the funds, Meno Trope Hall officially opened on March 23, 1924.

The building was built in a Spanish Colonial Revival Style, with white stucco walls on the exterior. The building was used for religious services, but also functioned as a gathering place for the community on the upper floors and a schoolhouse for children below. A bell tower was included as part of the original building.

Over the next 30 years, the congregation continued to grow, prompting church leadership to begin exploring expansions. Church members and community supporters raised around $100,000 in the mid-1950s to expand the building, worth approximately $1.23 million in 2026.

A larger sanctuary with an A-frame roof was constructed in the mid-century modern style in 1956, along with a fellowship hall, kitchen, offices, classrooms and connecting spaces, while the bell tower was removed. The additions to the church were dedicated the following year.

The new construction style was chosen thanks to changing architectural trends, creating a contrasting style that the church still calls home to this day. It was eventually added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2022.

Renovation

The Provo Community Church continues to see use today as a community space and worship center. However, serious renovations and expansions are currently underway, beginning as early as 2021.

The building is more than 102 years old and has not been able to stay up-to-date with electrical, plumbing, heating, cooling and safety systems. Additionally, a storm several years ago destroyed parts of the roof, requiring emergency repairs.

Church leadership had been exploring options for how to improve the space for several years before the 2021 renovations began. They approached several developers, some of whom offered to simply bulldoze everything and rebuild from the ground up, "which was not what we wanted," Lewis said.

As they were considering future steps, the First Congregational Church of Salt Lake City reached out to the Provo church, offering to donate their organ. Church and community members quickly raised $50,000 to move and store the organ while the Provo building was expanded.

Rather than completely modernize the church, as previous generations had done, Lewis said the current church council wanted to honor the individual feel of the church's historical nature.

"We're not trying to replicate it, but we're trying to complement it," he said.

To bring the building up to current accessibility standards, the church plans to put in a new bell tower in the center of the building, with an elevator allowing access to the upper and lower floors of Meno Trope Hall and the main floor of the current sanctuary.

Additionally, church leadership plans to expand the A-frame of the sanctuary backward by several feet, placing the organ where the current fellowship hall behind the sanctuary sits. A small lawn behind the church will be removed to build a new fellowship hall.

The ambitious renovations and expansions are expected to cost more than $10 million; the church and community organizations have already raised $1 million for the project.

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and other faith communities in Provo have volunteered to clean, repair and care for the property as time has gone on. City leaders have also worked hand in hand with the church to provide help to preserve and restore the historic building.

"By restoring this landmark, we are saving more than its walls, windows, and architecture," Lewis said. "We are preserving a place where people can worship, create music and art, build interfaith friendships, serve their neighbors, and experience a sense of belonging for generations to come."