The Episcopal Diocese of Maryland is renovating part of a 19th -century campus for a new life as a youth center.

The parish hall at Saint John’s Church on Greenmount Avenue in North Baltimore’s Waverly neighborhood will be renovated into classrooms and a commercial kitchen for a mentorship program and a nonprofit, the diocese said Tuesday.

“This was a place originally built to be able to gather the people of the neighborhood so that they could be fed and nourished,” Bishop Carrie Schofield-Broadbent said.

“It just warms my heart that this is still going to happen in this space.”

Saint John’s Church, previously Saint John’s in the Village, was constructed in 1858 and designed in the Gothic revival style by a founding member of the American Institute of Architects, according to the Baltimore City Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation. In 2017 the diocese declared Saint John’s an “imperiled parish.” In April 2023 the congregation closed and the diocese assumed the management of the campus.

The new space will house both the diocese’s Sutton Scholars High School Enrichment Program and the nonprofit Baltimore Bit.

The enrichment program offers six weeks of summer instruction and year-round mentoring. Executive director James Woody said the group has been renting space each summer at Mercy High School.

“Having a permanent residence will help during the year when it’s hard to get everyone together to check in. Now we will have a space,” said program coordinator Zinha Byrd, a 2019 graduate of Baltimore City College. “Learning what I learned in the program and the way it shaped how I thought about my own future, I’m just really excited it has the chance to grow.”

Baltimore Bit is a nonprofit focused on nutrition education, youth workforce development and Italian cooking. Through B-More Pasta, a business that sells small batches of pasta at stores, markets and online, the organization provides youth with work experience. Baltimore Bit also employs youth through a mobile food market and grocery box program.

“Food is our tool,” Monica Lapenta, executive director and CEO, said. “It is a powerful tool. It is a tool to create jobs for our young people. It is a tool to teach kids and families in schools that our health starts at the table.

“We will be the food that fuels the dreams of generations to come so that where there is food insecurity there will be abundance, and where there is poverty there will be community health and wealth for future generations.”

Diocese officials said Tuesday that the project is still in the planning stages and that they could not estimate a cost while the renovations are expected to take two to three years to complete.

The Rev. Canon Christine McCloud said the diocese will continue to own the campus, which includes a house and the church building in addition to the parish hall.