The Committee to Restore the Abyssinian Meeting House in Portland has received a $100,000 grant from The 1772 Foundation for the $3 million project, committee chairman Leonard Cummings announced Friday.

Built in 1828, the Abyssinian is the third-oldest church building in the nation that was constructed by a black congregation, after churches in Boston and Nantucket.

The 1772 Foundation is a New Jersey nonprofit corporation dedicated to historic preservation.

The committee will spend the grant on the restoration project’s second phase, which consists of stabilizing the building, pulling in exterior walls that have bowed over the years and lifting, repairing and replacing the roof and its support structures.

The second phase is expected to cost $250,000 and be completed in January, Cummings said. The committee hopes to finish the entire restoration within five years.

The Newbury Street church served as a school for black children when Portland’s schools were segregated. It also may have been a stop on the Underground Railroad, which helped slaves find freedom in the North.

After the church closed in 1917, the building was converted to apartments. The committee has been working since 1997 to develop the Abyssinian into a visitor site.

Last year, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. For more information, call Cummings at 772-7767 or visit www.abyme.org.