The former Chestnut Street Church, which became a restaurant and is now an event space, has gone back on the market for more than $3.7 million.

The 1836 church structure, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is being sold together with restaurant furnishings, fixtures and the existing business. The business and building were originally offered for sale in January 2021, but then was withdrawn. The asking price and other terms are unchanged in the relisting.

The building, at 15 Chestnut St. behind Portland City Hall, was a church for 160 years but then abandoned until the mid-2000s. Anne Rutherford renovated it, added a kitchen and a custom circular bar and opened Grace Restaurant. The restaurant won numerous awards and accolades from Zagat, Bon Appetit, Travel + Leisure and others.

Rutherford received Greater Portland Landmarks’ Robin Neeley Special Preservation Honor for her restoration work on the church. The organization noted her careful preservation of 27 stained-glass windows and her reimagining of the church interior as a restaurant.

Three years ago, the business changed from a restaurant to an event site, Trine Events at Grace.

According to Malone Commercial Brokers, the site hosts more than 50 weddings and private events a year and bookings for the rest of this year and 2023 have boomed as the pandemic has eased.

The building is one of the few examples of early Gothic Revival style and the work of Portland architect Charles A. Alexander. Many of the other examples of Alexander’s work and the architectural style were destroyed in the Great Fire of 1866.

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