A small wooden steeple that had adorned St. Matthew’s United Church in downtown Halifax now lies in pieces on the Barrington Street sidewalk, the victim of high overnight winds Tuesday.
The approximately two-metre steeple tumbled from its perch at about 2 a.m., crashing down on a decorative wrought-iron fence some nine metres below.
“There is one, possibly two more small steeples loose, possibly at a risk of falling,” said Brendan Elliott, a spokesman for Halifax Regional Municipality.
At noontime Wednesday, the wind was still whipping around the church site, which was cordoned off with tape and blocked by city police. Barrington Street from Spring Garden Road, the corner where the church stands, to Bishop Street was blocked to vehicles and pedestrians.
Debris from the fallen steeple still had not been cleaned up because of suspected danger from an identical steeple at the opposite end of the building. The second steeple could be seen moving in the wind.
While the small church congregation may be homeless for a few days, a more immediate concern is the homeless people who eat and sleep at Out of the Cold, a volunteer-run emergency shelter housed in the basement of the 158-year-old church.
Rev. Betsy Hogan said the 15-bed shelter also provides a hot meal and a place to stay warm for anywhere between 10 and 30 men and women each night.
“The shelter staff is currently looking for alternate space for (Wednesday) tonight,” Hogan said. “They’ve been working really, really hard.”
Hogan said the shelter also had to look for other accommodations in December, when the roof flashing blew off the building.
“When this happened in December, other agencies in the city were super helpful,” Hogan said. “I am really hoping that that will be sorted. My hope is that the north side debris will be cleared and the south side will be stabilized and secured in some way and we’ll be able to get back into the
building properly by (Thursday).”
Hogan, who has been working with the church for 17 years, said a second wind incident at the building in three months is concerning.
“The building has been maintained all the way along and we didn’t have any concerns about the steeples, particularly. We’re in a wind tunnel here. We did have major wind damage in December but the roof had been completely restored. Then the flashing flew off it. I think the strength and the complexity of wind storms and wind gusts have taken a shift up. I was at St. Matthew’s during (hurricane) Juan and we sustained no damage during Juan at all. Yet, twice in the last three months we’ve had major wind damage, including to a completely new roof. Something is different.”
St. Matthew’s dates back to 1754, when the churchopened at the corner of Hollis and Prince streets.That church burned on New Year’s Day in 1857and the congregration decided to build anew at the corner of Barrington and Spring Garden. Thecurrent church, adjacent to the massive Maritime
Centre, has a large steeple overlooking Barrington Street. There are four smaller upper steeples surrounding the main steeple, and the additionaltwo lower steeples, including the one that fell, rise from either side of the base of the sloped roof.
Elliott said city staff have talked with a construction company and crane operator.
“The current wind conditions prevent a crane or a bucket going up to remove the lower steeple,” Elliott said. “A structural engineer will need to be engaged regarding the four upper steeples as one appears to have some movement.”
He said police would remain on site until a traffic control company replaced them.
“The road will remain closed for the next day or two until conditions are favourable to complete the work. The closure will be on Barrington from Spring Garden to Morris. Local traffic will be permitted between Morris and Bishop.”
Church custodian Wayne Lynch said it will bedecided if the steeples at the north and south ends of the building would be repaired or rebuilt. He said the steeples are not necessary but if they weren’t there “it would sure change the look of your church.”
Hogan said that decision will be up to the stewards of the church.
“One of the difficulties that we have is that it is a heritage property so we can’t just say, ‘right, no more steeple.’ In the short term the goal is simply to make the building safe inside and outside it. In the long term, the stewards will have to make a decision about what is restored and what is allowed to not be restored in view of eliminating future risks.”
Hogan said the church has a congregation of about 120 worshippers.
“It’s not a large congregation but we have a whole whack of people that are attached to the congregation that do the outreach work.”
A free Sunday morning breakfast at the church serves dozens and dozens of people.
“We have to get the energy back and go back to what we’re supposed to be doing,” Hogan said.
