A local historic preservationist hopes to use the return of ArtPrize this week to draw public funding support for a yearslong project to convert a 150-year-old former church and parsonage in East Hills into a public arts center and housing.
Hermitage at Diamond, a nonprofit founded in 2020 by Carol Moore with a board of local community members, this week launched its first public fundraising campaign to support the conversion of the church Moore acquired in 2017 into an arts center with one or two apartment units in the attached former parsonage.
The Gothic Revival-style church, built in 1875 and located at 1009 Hermitage St. SE, was the former home of several congregations that have since moved on or closed…