Kingston Episcopal Parish in Mathews has released information about its plan, approved at a parish meeting on Nov. 17, to convert the unused, pre-1900 rectory to affordable housing for civil servants.
The rectory at 370 Main Street at one time shared the Main Street frontage with St. John’s Episcopal Church, which was dedicated in 1898 and dismantled in 1954. According to a church history, the parish purchased the property in 1894.
Also on the property is a parish house, the second; the first was built in 1954 and taken down in the 1980s for its successor.
The rectory is a component of the Mathews Downtown Historic District and is on the National Register of Historic Places and on the Virginia Landmarks Register. It has been unoccupied for several decades.
According to a release from the parish, the church authorized an ad hoc committee to convert the rectory into affordable housing for civil servants while maintaining its historical character due to its fundamental importance to Mathews County.
“We came to understand that there is currently a shortage of affordable housing in Mathews necessary to attract schoolteachers, county employees, and others needed to maintain and improve quality of life for county residents,” noted committee chair Bill Stearns in the release. Subject matter experts were recruited to the committee with expertise in planning, architecture, construction, real estate, and finance/fund raising. Bay Aging performed an analysis of the rectory and concluded that conversion to a two-unit workforce property is the best potential use, the release said.
The committee plans to raise renovation capital, and to that end, a fund at the Mathews Community Foundation, The Kingston Housing Initiative, has been established dedicated to the renovation of the rectory, the release said. Contributions to the fund, either direct gifts, transfer of stock, or IRA distributions will qualify for a charitable deduction. The fund documents stipulate that all donations will be directed to the renovation of the ectory for workforce housing.
Linwood Burton of Bush Construction has been recruited to determine cost estimates and then oversee the modification of the building, the release said.
Committee members are Bill Stearns, chairman, Sandy Wilson, Hunt Thompson, Martha McCartney, Bill Leary, Bernadette La Casse, Josie Thorpe, Willie Hubbard and Tim and Frances Hudgins.
For more information, contact Stearns at 804-840-4318 or via email at bstearns4646@gmail.com.