California Preservation Awards Sponsorship

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The 2026 Design Awards Event

A view from above of a circular, multi-level courtyard with ornate railings, white columns, red tile floors, and a central fountain surrounded by greenery. Spiral staircases connect the different levels.We're celebrating 24 award winning projects, as well as the Trustee's Awards for Excellence and four President's Awards at the Mission Inn in downtown Riverside. This special celebration is followed by a ticketed reception with food and drinks. Purchase your tickets before they sell out!

Second Baptist Church HSR

Owner/Client
Valerie McDonald – Second Baptist Church

Project Lead & Historic Architect
Dick Gee – Spectra Company

Report Author
Alison Garcia Kellar – Environmental Science Associates

Structural Engineer
Rich Lawrence – John A. Martin & Associates, Inc.

MEP Engineer
Jacob Chan – TPM Collaborative

Historic Preservation Consultant
Environmental Science Associates

Contractor
Ray Adamyk – Spectra Company

Digital Documentation
Alan White – AQYER

HSR Grant Funding
Tiffany Tolbert – African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund

Second Baptist Church

Second Baptist Church is a winner for the 2026 Preservation Design Award in the category of Cultural Resource Studies, Reports. Award recipients are selected by a jury of top professionals in the fields of architecture, engineering, planning, and history, as well as renowned architecture critics and journalists. Tickets and sponsorship options are available at californiapreservation.org/programs/awards/.

About Second Baptist Church

Second Baptist Church was constructed in 1926 to designs by master architect Paul R. Williams. With historically important ties to the Great Migration and the Civil Rights movement, the building is now beginning its centennial anniversary. The HSR Project included comprehensive updates to architectural, structural, mechanical, engineering, plumbing, and siting assessment, as well as extensive documentation efforts to capture current conditions, including measured drawings, professional photography, drone capture, 3D scanning and model development, and the development of an updated and restructured analysis of the character-defining features (CDF). Prepared by a team of technical experts, the report includes a long-term maintenance plan along with rehabilitation recommendations to address identified building deficiencies, designed with sensitivity to ensure future modifications to the Church will meet code and accessibility requirements while retaining historic integrity. Capital project and preservation treatment recommendations were also included with corresponding cost estimates and an example phased construction schedule.

Read more about the Preservation Design Awards
Exterior view of the historic Second Baptist Church in Los Angeles, featuring a bell tower with a cross, arched windows, and a Sunday School sign, with a 2026 Preservation Design Award badge.
A large group of people sit in pews inside a church with tall stained glass windows, attending a meeting. State signs like “Arkansas” and “Nebraska” mark sections among the crowd. A speaker stands at the front.
Tall beige double doors with decorative square patterns serve as the entrance to Second Baptist Church, featuring a large arched stone frame, ornate columns, and Second Baptist Church written above the doorway.
Interior of a large church sanctuary with curved wooden pews, stained glass windows, an American flag, choir seating, musical instruments, and warm overhead lighting.
View of a high-ceilinged interior with large stained glass skylights, circular light fixtures, cream-colored walls, and a wooden balcony railing. The space appears to be a grand public or historic building.
Interior view of a church with tall arched stained glass windows depicting biblical scenes, wooden pews in the foreground, and ornate columns with decorative capitals.
A small baptismal pool with a painted mural of rocks, trees, and mountains on the walls, a cross with INRI hanging from the ceiling, and a blue-lit doorway in the corner.
Rows of empty wooden chairs face large wooden doors with colorful stained glass panels in a classroom or lecture hall setting. A briefcase sits beside one of the chairs.
A large brick church with arched windows, a central rose window, and a square bell tower, with several cars parked along the street in front of the building. The sky is clear and blue.
A round stained glass window with intricate, colorful patterns set in a white wall, partially covered at the bottom by plastic-wrapped objects and flanked by dark wooden pews.
A large brick church building with arched windows, a bell tower topped with a blue cross, and a central entrance labeled Sunday School above the doorway. Bushes and plants line the front.
Historic black and white photo of a large brick building with arched windows, tall entry staircases, and a prominent square clock tower, situated on a corner with empty sidewalks and street.

Community Importance

The project is important to the Second Baptist congregation itself given that the building remains an active church, as well as an important part of the African American history of Los Angeles. The Church continues to serve as a guiding light to the Los Angeles community, with its long-standing presence serving as a physical anchor to those migrating out west as part of the Great Migration, and later as host for NAACP national conventions and for speeches given by Black intellectuals and luminaries during the Civil Rights movement. With its continuous presence in the community despite the rapidly changing surrounding demographics, the congregation today provides support to the South Central neighborhood including weekly food drives, low-income housing, annual community gathering activities, in addition to ongoing worship services and related religious events.

This report aims to serve as a roadmap to ensure the Church’s long-term stability, endangered by age and its dwindling congregation. Because of its smaller patronage, donor support has substantially lessened, requiring that the congregation find its own financing to support ongoing maintenance, repairs, and to envision capital projects. This report provides guidance to enable the Church and stakeholders to pursue adequate funding to supplement what their own resources can cover. This project documents the building’s current condition which informed sensible maintenance and capital project recommendations to ensure the building’s continued stewardship and moreover, the congregation’s continued community presence in this sacred space.

 

About CPF and the Awards

Held in conjunction with CPF’s 2026 Annual Conference in Riverside, the 2026 Mission Inn Preservation Design Awards Ceremony and Reception will spotlight excellence in historic preservation in a setting that reflects the very spirit of the work being honored. This special evening brings together award recipients, conference participants, preservation leaders, and supporters from across California to celebrate outstanding preservation projects and leadership through the Preservation Design Awards and President’s Awards.

Founded in 1978, the California Preservation Foundation (CPF) is California’s statewide nonprofit organization dedicated to the protection of historic places and cultural heritage. Through education, advocacy, and community-centered programs, CPF supports the people, projects, and policies that keep California’s historic resources vital and valued. We now support a national network of more than 36,000 members and supporters. Click here to learn how you can become a member.