Rare red sandstone bricks from an old N.J. church will be used to restore the Smithsonian Castle in D.C. The church, built in 1867, is being demolished for a new dispensary. The Castle, designed by architect James Renwick Jr., is undergoing its first major renovation in over 50 years, preserving historical significance.
SJ Hauck Construction photo
“We are literally helping preserve history, brick by brick,” said SJ Hauck Construction.
Rare sandstone bricks from a soon-to-be demolished historic church in New Jersey will be used to renovate the Smithsonian Castle in Washington, D.C.,
As crews from SJ Hauck Construction in Absecon, N.J. raze the First Presbyterian Church in Atlantic City, they are carefully saving the red sandstone bricks lining its exterior, the Philadelphia Inquirer originally reported. The stones are destined for the National Mall, where they will be built into the original Smithsonian Institution building, also known as the Castle.
"The Castle restoration project will preserve it for the next 100 years," Carly Bond, associate director of architectural history and historic preservation for the Smithsonian, told Smithsonian magazine in a text. "The building is the symbolic heart of the institution."
Built in 1855 in the Gothic Revival style, the Castle is undergoing its first major renovation in more than 50 years, Smithsonian magazine noted June 27, 2025. The dark red Seneca sandstone covering the structure's façade came from a Maryland quarry that shut down in 1901, so designers needed to find another source.
A member of the renovation team who is from Atlantic City suggested the First Presbyterian Church. When they brought a piece of sandstone from the Castle to the church, they realized it was a near-perfect match. The sandstone covering both structures came from the same geological formation.
The Smithsonian Castle was designed by architect James Renwick Jr., who won a national competition in 1846.
Built in 1867, Atlantic City's First Presbyterian Church was damaged when Superstorm Sandy swept through coastal New Jersey in 2012. The congregation using the building considered renovating it but eventually decided to move to another location.
A nonprofit that provides meals to unhoused individuals also briefly used the space, but it had to move out when the building was deemed unsafe in 2019, NJ Advance Media reported last year.
Now, the 158-year-old church is being torn down to make way for a new marijuana dispensary.
Its red sandstone bricks, however, will live on.
"Salvaging red sandstone from the demolition of First Presbyterian saves this material from a landfill, but it really saves the Castle," Bond said.
Working while suspended off the ground by bucket trucks, crews are painstakingly prying off each piece of stone by hand using chipper hammers.
SJ Hauck Construction photo
The project is "so much more than a simple restoration," SJ Hauck Construction wrote in a Facebook post May 27. "We are literally helping preserve history, brick by brick."
Once removed, the bricks are sent down a chute and packed onto flatbed trucks for the 200-mi. journey to the nation's capital.
After they arrive in Washington, they are cut and carved to match the needs of the Castle. The Smithsonian purchased all of the bricks from the old Atlantic City church, and the institution's leaders plan to save some for future use.
The iconic Smithsonian Castle has been closed since February 2023 for extensive repairs and upgrades. The project, which is expected to last a total of about five years, includes restoring the building's Great Hall to its original appearance; expanding and relocating the café, shop and restrooms; and creating a space for public programming.
Workers also will replace the windows, fix the roof and install new mechanical, electrical, plumbing, safety, security and information technology systems. The last time the building underwent a major overhaul was in the late 1960s.
Smithsonian's Evolution Requires An Updated Castle
Among its many exhibits over the decades, the Smithsonian Castle once housed the aircraft that the Wright Brothers piloted in 1903 to make mankind's first powered flight at Kitty Hawk, N.C., as well as Charles Lindbergh's "Spirit of St. Louis" airplane — the first to cross the Atlantic Ocean from New York to Paris in 1927.
Both planes are now on exhibit two blocks east of the old structure along Independence Avenue at the National Air and Space Museum.
The 170-year-old Castle has "mirrored the societal and institutional values of the time, for better or worse," wrote Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III for Smithsonian magazine in March 2023.
"The iconic red stone that makes up the building's exterior is sandstone that was mined by enslaved people," he said.
Not long after the Castle opened, the American abolitionist Frederick Douglass was barred from speaking there simply because he was Black.
Smithsonian photo
However, the Smithsonian has evolved — and so has the Castle, Bunch wrote.
It is now time for a makeover that honors and preserves the structure's history while also bringing it into the modern era, he said.
"After nearly two centuries, the Castle remains an embodiment of the heart of the Institution, a majestic space where the past and future converge," Bunch said.
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