Crews are already at work building a new three-stop lift elevator at St. James of Jerusalem Episcopal Church in Long Beach, a project the parish hopes to have running by the end of August. The $107,000 elevator will connect the sanctuary and program rooms, giving parishioners who use wheelchairs a way around entrances currently surrounded by stairs at both the side and front of the building.
The project, first reported by News12 Long Island, is being funded in part by a Nassau County American Rescue Plan Act grant along with local donors. "The elevator will honor the church's message that all are welcome," said the Rev. Michael Delaney, vicar of St. James of Jerusalem, who added that "people need to feel comfortable when coming into the church in a wheelchair."
A Landmark Sanctuary Built Long Before Accessibility Codes Existed
St. James of Jerusalem traces its roots to 1880, and the current sanctuary at 220 West Penn Street went up in 1935, gaining local landmark status after the parish incorporated in 1938, according to the church's own history. That vintage explains why the outlet's report described a building where getting into worship or program space has long meant climbing steps.
Because Title III of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act broadly exempts places of worship from mandatory accessibility retrofits, per Disabled World, nothing legally required St. James of Jerusalem to add an elevator at all. The parish is instead choosing to spend six figures on the lift as a voluntary investment in who can physically reach its pews and classrooms.
Where the Money Is Coming From
Nassau County received $385 million in ARPA funding, and in January 2024 its legislature voted to steer $15 million of that pot toward community non-profits and local projects spread across the county's 19 legislative districts, according to LI Herald. That earlier legislative fight over distributing the money evenly among districts set the stage for grants like the one now helping pay for the Long Beach elevator.
By November 2024, county lawmakers had authorized a further $1.25 million wave of long-delayed ARPA awards aimed at non-profits and religious food ministries still working through post-pandemic community needs, PoliticsNY reported. The elevator funding fits into that broader county push to get federal relief dollars out to local religious and community organizations.
More Than a Sunday Service Space
The elevator's biggest beneficiaries may be the groups that already use St. James of Jerusalem's undercroft, a lower-level community space currently reached only by a half-flight of stairs. The Long Beach Art League holds weekly open studio art sessions there, per the Long Beach Art League, making the space a shared hub for local artists as much as churchgoers.
The parish also runs a
