Dean Zinkhann, Evans City mayor and member of the Evans City Historical Society, helps paint North Union Church during a restoration project on Wednesday, Sept. 4. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle

FORWARD TWP — The North Union Church is beginning to look the way Connie Frierson and Beverly Krill remember it.

A fresh coat of white paint went a long way toward making the church, built in the 1860s, more closely resemble its former look — and it was thanks to the work of volunteers who also wanted to preserve the church as a piece of history. Krill said the painting day could not have come at a better time.

“It was just so important to get this done to preserve the wood, because we were down to bare wood in some places,” Krill said.

The sisters Krill and Frierson are members of the North Union Cemetery Association, a group that maintains the church’s still-active cemetery while also trying to restore the church into a building that can be used by the community.

Krill said the association’s seven members are descendants of people who attended Covenanter church, which was later a Reformed Presbyterian church, and she and her siblings grew up across the street from the building. Krill said several members of her family are buried in the cemetery and estimates she and Frierson are the fifth generation of the family that originally attended the church.

Krill said the last regular attendees of the church probably stopped maintaining it in the 1970s, when its core members grew too old to continually work on the building.

Frierson said the church is historically important not only because of its lengthy history, but because it was one of only a few Covenanter churches, and to her knowledge, the only standing church within Forward Township.

“In the 1860s, there was a North Union, a South Union, an East Union and a West Union,” Frierson said. “The North Union is the only Covenanter church left in that circle.”

One of the people painting the church Wednesday was Evans City Mayor Dean Zinkhann, who is also a member of the Evans City Historical Society. Zinkhann helped recruit painters but didn’t skimp on the painting himself, as he spoke from the top of a ladder extended to the church’s upper third.

“Anything to preserve old buildings,” Zinkhann said.

Although the church still needs interior work to be ready for Frierson’s ultimate goal of making it into a community hall, the association has had open houses there and is planning a Thanksgiving event for November.

Krill and Frierson said the initiative to restore the church originally came from Rosalyn Kummer, who signed on as the new association president in the mid-2000s. Kummer died in 2022, but not before establishing 501(c)(3) nonprofit status for the association, Krill said.

Krill said the work the association is performing is, in part, to continue Kummer’s work. “We’re just trying to make her proud,” she said.

For more information on the association and its work, visit North Union Cemetery Association’s Facebook page.

Dean Zinkhann, Evans City Mayor and member of the Evans City Historical Society, helps paint North Union Church during a restoration project on Wednesday, Sept. 4. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle

Volunteer Bob Bower paints North Union Church from a lift during a restoration project at the church on Wednesday, Sept. 4. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle

Bob Bower paints North Union Church with the help of a lift, which is being operated by Bob Grant, during a restoration project at the church on Wednesday, Sept. 4. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle

Volunteer Bob Bower paints North Union Church from a lift while Bob Grant supervises and operates the lift during a restoration project at the church on Wednesday, Sept. 4. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle

Bob Bower paints North Union Church with the help of a lift, which is being operated by Bob Grant, during a restoration project at the church on Wednesday, Sept. 4. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle

Volunteer Bob Bower paints North Union Church during a restoration project at the church on Wednesday, Sept. 4. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle

Dean Zinkhann, Evans City Mayor and member of the Evans City Historical Society, helps paint North Union Church during a restoration project on Wednesday, Sept. 4. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle

Volunteer Bob Bower paints North Union Church from a lift during a restoration project at the church on Wednesday, Sept. 4. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle

Dean Zinkhann, Evans City Mayor and member of the Evans City Historical Society, helps paint North Union Church during a restoration project on Wednesday, Sept. 4. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle

Volunteer Bob Bower paints North Union Church from a lift during a restoration project at the church on Wednesday, Sept. 4. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle

Bob Grant operates the lift from which Bob Bower paints North Union Church during a restoration project at the church on Wednesday, Sept. 4. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle

Volunteer Bob Bower paints North Union Church from a lift during a restoration project at the church on Wednesday, Sept. 4. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle

Bob Bower paints North Union Church with the help of a lift, which is being operated by Bob Grant, during a restoration project at the church on Wednesday, Sept. 4. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle

Dean Zinkhann, Evans City Mayor and member of the Evans City Historical Society, helps paint North Union Church during a restoration project on Wednesday, Sept. 4. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle

Dean Zinkhann, Evans City Mayor and member of the Evans City Historical Society, helps paint North Union Church during a restoration project on Wednesday, Sept. 4. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle

Volunteer Bob Bower paints North Union Church from a lift during a restoration project at the church on Wednesday, Sept. 4. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle

Bob Bower paints North Union Church with the help of a lift, which is being operated by Bob Grant, during a restoration project at the church on Wednesday, Sept. 4. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle

Bob Bower paints North Union Church with the help of a lift, which is being operated by Bob Grant, during a restoration project at the church on Wednesday, Sept. 4. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle

Bob Bower paints North Union Church with the help of a lift, which is being operated by Bob Grant, during a restoration project at the church on Wednesday, Sept. 4. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle

Volunteer Bob Bower paints North Union Church from a lift during a restoration project at the church on Wednesday, Sept. 4. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle