Bronzeville on the South Side of Chicago is slated to be home to the National Gospel Museum by 2020, according to Curbed Chicago. Located in the heavily damaged Pilgrim Baptist Church at 3301 S. Indiana Ave., the museum will be the first of its kind in the nation.

Organizers held a press conference to discuss the lofty goals to transform the dilapidated church into a museum. Plans include reincorporating the building’s historic architecture and masonry walls to create a 40,000-square-foot facility. 

The design plans come from Dirk Lohan of Wight & Company and will include multiple exhibition spaces, an auditorium, and research library. According to the Associated Press, Don Jackson, founder of the Stellar Gospel Music Awards and former chairman of the DuSable Museum of African American History is leading the project.

“The museum will pay further tribute to the home-grown genre that’s given life to legends like Thomas Dorsey, Mahalia Jackson, Albertina Walker, Jessy Dixon, Shirley Caesar, and so many more,” Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said in a statement.

The Pilgrim Baptist Church was built by Adler and Sullivan in 1890 as a synagogue, and it became a home to a Baptist congregation in the 1920s. The space is considered the birthplace of gospel music in the 1930s.

The interior of the church was severely damaged by a fire in 2006, and the total cost of turning the space into a museum is expected to be $37.2 million. Still early on in the planning stages, the team behind the project are exploring fundraising options, including multiple sources of landmark preservation funding.

Groundbreaking is expected for next spring, and if all goes as planned the museum will open 2020 in the month of September, which President Barack Obama designated as Gospel Music Heritage Month.