Cape Cod?s historic churches are beautiful New England landmarks, but like all old buildings in this climate, they deteriorate. Repairs and restorations are costly. The churches also are facing the challenges of smaller and aging congregations, which makes raising money even more difficult.
The First Congregational Church of Yarmouth built in 1870 and sometimes called the ?church on the hill? because of its high perch on Route 6A in Yarmouth Port, has accomplished some major repairs and additions in the past year in some creative ways. The church received $158,000 this year from the town?s Community Preservation Act funds to cover part of the costs of new siding and a handicap ramp and is seeking more money to restore windows and shutters, install new storm windows and make other exterior repairs.
?Our intention is to bring the church as close as possible to 1870,? church building committee chairman Ray Beaton told the Community Preservation Committee last week. ?It costs a bloody fortune to do that. We are not a big enough congregation to do it ourselves.?
Beaton?s committee has been working for two years on the restoration project for the massive two-story building that seats 400 in the sanctuary and has a large meeting hall and addition The committee managed to get a cellular phone company, Metro PCS, to replace the entire steeple, which was only 15 years old, but leaking badly. The company wanted the church steeple to house its electronics and receivers in the highest spot in the area, Beaton said.
Metro PCS even provided a new cross for the top of the steeple, so the old one is now next to the new handicap ramp that was installed this year with the help of $20,000 in CPA funds. The double ramp project grew from an $18,000 bid to about $35,000 because of special weather resistant railings, pushing back the parking lot and adding a stonewall and landscaping, Beaton said.
The replacement of the original clapboard siding with HardiePlank, a composite material that won?t shed like wood, was being completed this week by the A.P. Whitaker Co., which required a crane to reach the highest points.
??A church can?t keep painting,? Beaton said on a recent church tour, explaining that the church was spending $25,000 a year to have just one section painted and $125,000 over five years to complete the entire church. Then the painting would begin again. The new material only needs to be spray painted at the beginning to seal it and less often after that, he said.
?The lower level shiplap siding also will be replaced with another weather resistant product, Azek, and the church hopes to sell the old planks to a restoration company. Vertical columns on the sides of the church called ?coins? also will be covered with a PVC material. The curved ornate parts around the windows and under the eaves will be painted. The arched woodwork above the front main doors is rotting and that restoration alone will cost about $22,000.
The main project for next year will be the restoration of all 11 12-foot-tall windows in the church sanctuary and 10 on the lower level as well as new storm windows and new shutters. ?The project is long overdue and it?s not ever been done,? Beaton said.
Restoring old windows is a major and expensive undertaking that requires removing each one, two at a time, putting them in a steam oven to remove the old varnish and melt putty, repegging, fixing stops and cords and cleaning the brass fixtures. Beaton said window restorer Denis Semprebon of Beacon Hill Restoration of Boston will do the restoration at cost expected to be more than the $32,000 initial bid.
Beaton brought Semprebon to the meeting to describe the project, which is similar to many he has done in the historic structures across the country. Semprebon brought a sample heavy-duty aluminum storm window to show the committee how it would be installed inside the existing window structure.
At the church, Beaton showed how the 30-year-old storm windows extend out from the siding and ?are not historically valid.? The new storms will be virtually invisible on the exterior, he said. ?It wouldn?t make sense to restore the windows without protective storm windows.?
The windows and the shutters are not the usual squares or rectangles, but arched and in various shapes, one being called a bat wing. The shutters that were custom made by church members 25 years ago also are rotting and slats are missing or broken. Several of the stationary shutters on the top half the sanctuary windows are missing sections that are visible from the interior.
Semprebon proposed replacing the old shutters with a harder, more weather-resistant wood, such as Spanish cedar or mahogany, which is more expensive. Beaton said the storm windows are estimated to cost about $51,000 while the shutters will be $135,000.
?The shutters are incredibly labor intensive to make,? Semprebon said, but added, ?I provide a lifetime maintenance program and a lifetime warrantee.?
The church committee has submitted a total request of $306,000 in CPA funds for next year, but Beaton said he expected resistance to the $66,000 request for restoring the 1892 Hook and Hastings organ, and he got it for the second year.
?The organ is going a little bit overboard because it?s not an exterior viewing,? CPC member Tom Kelley said. The committee turned down the church?s request for the organ last year as well as other requests for an elevator and other interior restoration, as it did for several churches. The CPC has held its approvals to exterior work on the historic properties.
?We would love to raise $300,000 for the organ and elevator and we hope to do the wall cracks,? Beaton said, referring to large cracks in the interior plaster above the windows. ?The elevator and organ will exhaust our resources,? Beaton told the CPC.?
The average Sunday church attendance is about 125 and the pledging units number 220 with a total of 320 members. ?I think we could count on 150 units to make a pledge to the elevator fund,? Beaton said. ?It will require a good deal of salesmanship to bring that about.?
The church has spent almost $50,000 of its own funds for the siding and ramp and has on hand $31,400 for the elevator and $10,900 in the organ fund.
The CPC is currently reviewing $3.7 million in total funding requests for five historic preservation projects, seven public recreation improvements and four affordable housing grants. It is expected to make its recommendations by mid-December, which will be brought to Town Meeting in the spring.
Susan Vaughn can be reached at svaughn@wickedlocal.com
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