Gothic churches maintenance and repairs

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I was floored to see this story of the cost of steeple repair in churches of traditional architecture.

This particular story is about a Baptist owned building here in Pittsburgh, but the architecture is very traditionally Catholic, and I researched the story a bit when I saw their steeple sitting in their front yard.

Is the cost of the maintenance of this type of traditional building too prohibitive to justify churches of this style from being built in the present? Anyone else aware of Gothic type churches requiring this kind of expensive upkeep?

first-baptist-pittsburgh.org/Steeple-Web/CN_news.html
 
Old buildings can certainly be very expensive to maintain and renovate. I would imagine that modern construction techniques, along with some foresite, could make a newly-constructed church cheaper to maintain than one a century or more in age.

BTW, that’s the most un-baptist looking church I have ever seen! 🙂
 
VociMike said:
Old buildings can certainly be very expensive to maintain and renovate. I would imagine that modern construction techniques, along with some foresite, could make a newly-constructed church cheaper to maintain than one a century or more in age.

BTW, that’s the most un-baptist looking church I have ever seen! 🙂
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Ditto!

Sheesh, I think this Church’s building plan predates its denomination by at least a few centuries…

first-baptist-pittsburgh.org/
 
Ha, I didnt know that many protestants took to papist architecture 😛
 
chicago said:
You consider a million dollars to be expensive in today’s economy? Really, that isn’t much. Loyola University in Chicago just spent 4 million on a renovation of their main chapel, Madonna Della Strada:

luc.edu/sacramental_life/Madonna_Della_Strada_Renovation.shtml
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The million dollars at 1st Baptist is just to repair the steeple to its original condition, not to do anything at all inside like at Loyola.

Still sounds like a lot of money.
 
Kielbasi said:
The million dollars at 1st Baptist is just to repair the steeple to its original condition, not to do anything at all inside like at Loyola.

Still sounds like a lot of money.
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Well, sure it’s a “lot of money”. But it takes “a lot of money” to build and upkeep quality facilities. The Chicago Symphony and Lyric Opera recently spent about 100 million each to update their facilities. Really, we need to get with the program and just understand what real costs are in todays economy to relate and respond to the needs.

Or look at it, the dolllar is no longer the real standard of American currency. The $20 bill is. Everything which your grandparents may have told you used to cost 7 cents or that once seemed to be reasonable in cost in relation to the dollar has to be multipled by 20 to get today’s comparable costs.

So would $50,000 sound like a lot for the steeple? That’s a million divided by 20. Perhaps if everyone put an average of 20 bucks into the collection basket rather than a dollar, we wouldn’t be thinking of 1 mil as in any way prohibitive.
 
One million sounds about right. Here is the example you were looking for.

St. Francis Oratory goals: Save souls, straighten tower

by Barbara Watkins, Review Staff Writer http://www.institute-christ-king.org/stlouis2/images/FrLenhardtsteeple.JPG

Father Karl W. Lenhardt, rector of St. Francis de Sales Oratory, stands on the roof of the old parish high school as the church steeple looms prominently in the background. St. Francis de Sales, a majestic, historic church known as the �Cathedral of South St. Louis,� is in need of major repairs. The most immediate need is stabilization of the 300-foot steeple, which is pulling away from the church building because of inadequate foundation support. Cost estimates are as high as $1.5 million for the project. A fund-raising appeal is being conducted, which Father Lenhardt hopes will draw support from the many former parishioners and alumni of St. Francis de Sales.Since its beginning in 1867, St. Francis de Sales Parish has provided a spiritual home for thousands of St. Louis Catholics who attended its schools and prayed in the striking Gothic church known as the “Cathedral of South St. Louis.”

Now that almost-100-year-old church � a landmark on the National Register of Historic Places and highlight of this year�s St. Louis Landmarks Association Preservation Week � is badly in need of repairs that will exceed $1 million.

More
 
pm1853 said:
Do you have any photes of before the renovation? I really like the stations of the cross and the floor is pretty cool.
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Well, it has gone through several changes.

Previously, the gold leaf behind the stations was not there. The tabernacle presently seen is new as well as the Greek pillars. So, basically, they Easternized a Church which is built in more of a sleek, innovative art deco style.

They have extended the santuary mural down (it used to end where the old high altar was) and removed the old awning over where the high altar was. (A smaller wood tabernacle had resided there of late.) There was a tall marble pulpit off to the left which hadn’t gotten used in years. It’s gone now.

Up till recently, they had had movable upholstered gray chairs with no kneelers. (They got moved to the old Mundelein College building auditorium last year when it was renovated and had it’s auditorium seating removed.)

The floor was more plain looking, as I recall, but still decent. The nave’s walls are actually mismatched marble underneath that recently added stylistic white which is now seen to make things look more even. They’ve added a new baptismal font which replaces a cheaper looking one which was installed who knows when.

They used to have a wood altar which faced off against a cheapy pulpit at the opposite end, while the congregation was seated in choir style. That eventually was changed to the altar in a mock up sanctuary at the side of the nave (the sanctuary had an altar which wasn’t used with a large screen behind it, and a sort of quasi adoration chapel behind that.) The congregation was seated in a sort of semicircular setup (though it was more rectangular) around it.

Of course, my recollections are in regard to the 1982 renovations with which I am most familiar. Before that, it obviously looked more like a traditional set up inside.

The church has a series of crypt chapels below the sanctuary which are very nice.

Here is an article from the Loyola University newspaper on the renovation:

media.www.loyolaphoenix.com/media/storage/paper673/news/2007/09/19/News/Like-A.Virgin.Madonna.Undergoes.Miraculous.Renovations-2977636.shtml
 
Yes, you can make beautiful churches today.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Mission_Basilica_San_Juan_Cap.jpg

The 85 foot (26 m) high main rotunda and 104 foot (32 m) bell tower make Mission Basilica San Juan Capistrano the tallest building in town. Designed “in the spirit and likeness” of the “Great Stone Church,” ground was broken on January 31, 1982. Officially opened on October 23, 1986, the facility was dedicated on February 8, 1987; Pope John Paul II conferred the rank of Minor Basilica to this facility on February 14, 2000.
 
chicago said:
Perhaps if everyone put an average of 20 bucks into the collection basket rather than a dollar, we wouldn’t be thinking of 1 mil as in any way prohibitive.
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I see plenty of $20s going into the basket, but I think that’s what my dad put in too. So let’s try for a $100! 😃
 
chicago said:
Yes, but the real question is, “How much will they cost?”
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Honestly, I don’t know as the basilica was built before I moved to OC. San Juan Capistrano isn’t a huge city though, and they managed to make it happen. Honestly, I think we’d all be supprised what can be done when we pray on it and then go out and do what it takes for fundraising.

That said, that parish is experenced with fundraising. They are always having to raise money for stuff to do with protecting the old mission building from the elements, etc.
 
lak611 said:
It does not look Baptist inside either.
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It appears Episcopalean to me. Perhaps, like many Protestant Churches, their community bought it out when another which originally built it left.
 
chicago said:
It appears Episcopalean to me. Perhaps, like many Protestant Churches, their community bought it out when another which originally built it left.
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There is a Catholic Church, Conversion of St. Paul, in Cleveland, that was originally Episcopalian. The Episcopal parish moved in the 1928 and the Catholic parish was started in 1930. It was St. Paul’s Episcopal and became Conversion of St. Paul after it became a Catholic Church. Here’s a picture. http://www.cleveland.catholicnet.com/parish/conversionstpaul/image1.gif

Here’s a picture of the inside. http://www.saintpaulshrine.com/images/conversionOfStPaulGreen.jpg
 
A local church building (in country New England-esque style architecture) which had been baptist was taken over by the Catholics about a decade ago, to be used as a mission pasrish for an ethnic community. The pastor once took me on a nickel tour, pointing out what kind of changes they had to make to the interior to Catholicize it. He noted, particularly, that where the altar now stands had been a large baptismal pool.
 
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