Groundbreaking Held for St. James Expansions

St. James Episcopal Church held a groundbreaking ceremony last Monday for the expansion of the church’s preschool campus and parish hall.

“This has been a long time coming,” said Rev. Eric Hungerford, rector at St. James. “We actually started the discussion about this expansion back in 2016.”

Just as the church was getting ready for the expansion back in 2016, a little storm called Hurricane Harvey blew through La Grange. Stormwater inundated parts of the church, which required extensive repairs and mold cleanup.

“We had to put this project on the back burner until our hurricane rebuilding was done,” Hungerford said.

Last Monday, the church finally got back around to the expansion project. St. James hired Gaeke Construction to perform the work. The project involves expanding the preschool building towards Colorado Street and expanding the parish hall towards Monroe.

Gaeke Construction actually built the preschool 35 years ago. Hungerford described the church’s decision to hire Gaeke for the expansion as “providential.”