The Notre Dame des Canadiens Church, located in Salem Square in Worcester, was built in 1929, and is set to be taken down by CitySquare II. The Church was functioning until 2007, when it was vacated, and then bought in 2010 by the current owners. The church is located on the edge of the CitySquare development, next to the new 168-room hotel.

CitySquare II plans to demolish the church, although they were open to proposals from outside groups that wanted to restore the church. But, representatives from CitySquare II expressed that none of these proposals seemed economically viable.

One group, the Save Notre Dame Alliance, is making a last-minute effort to put off the demolition until September 2018 in an attempt to buy time to raise money to save and restore the historic church.

They are doing this by compiling a curation of art by local artists that is inspired by the Notre Dame Church.

Ted Conna, one of the heads of the Alliance, said in a telephone interview last Wednesday that he was interested in saving the church relatively recently, and by the time he got involved, “It was a challenge to save it…but I thought it was possible.”

Conna would like to see the church “restored for public purpose so people are using the building”, and wants to modernize the building, as well as make it energy efficient. He also said that his vision of the restored church would be the “crown jewel of CitySquare”.

The Save Notre Dame Alliance also held an art contest called “Show Us Your Notre Dame”, and ten different $250 prizes were awarded. According to Conna, the decision to do an art contest was made only four days before announcing it.

An artist who submitted her photographs to the contest, Linda Nelson, said that the Notre Dame church is an “architectural gem” in a phone interview on Tuesday. She also mentioned that she, just that morning, contacted the Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation, the real estate investment firm that runs Quincy Market. Nelson said that she submitted photos and wrote to them about “one last chance to save the church and if they had any ideas on how to do that.”

Nelson said Notre Dame is more than a church, but “a beautiful piece of art”. She walks by the church every day, and sees a lot of potential for the building, saying, “I could see it as a marketplace or farmers market. I could see it as an extension of what’s happening on the Common. They have Latino festivals, they have skating in the wintertime, they could have little performances there.”

Nelson also said that she “can’t think of one festival that couldn’t use a brilliant, large indoor space” like the Notre Dame Church building. She mentioned dozens of potential uses for the building, none of which involve demolition.

This creative vision is what Ted Conna was hoping to find via the “Show Us Your Notre Dame” art contest. He said that “artists are really good at conveying vision and emotional content…artists can reach people that we, as activists, were not reaching.”

For more information and to donate, visit www.savenotredamealliance.com/about.

Photos by Linda Nelson.

Natalie Volo