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- Category: Past Issues
caption, page 6:
Clockwise from left: Holes and stains in the church's ceiling. Right: Twisted framework around the tower's stained glass windows. Capital Campaign Chairman Charlie Leach climbs the last ladder to the steeple. Pastor Tom Meyer (left) and Leach next to the bell in the steeple.
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM --- After raising money at dizzying speed from dizzying heights, the Congregational Church of Putnam is wasting no time starting repairs on its steeple downtown.
The steeple came down Sept. 8 and will be repaired sitting on the ground and then lifted back up onto the 1870 tower.
Pastor Tom Meyer, who is afraid of heights, spent all day Sept. 2 in the steeple of the downtown church, hoping to raise $5,000 toward restoring the tower and stopping the water damage below in the church. By 5 p.m. pledges to the church and WINY Radio and cash totaled more than $8,500. Church and radio folks involved were touched by how many pledges poured in from every income and religious strata.
"It's overwhelming" said Charlie Leach, chairman of the capital campaign. Little kids dropped off their allowances. Churches from all around northeast Connecticut pledged money. Businesses within earshot of the radiothon on WINY called in, offering money. Leach said the "steeple pledge" idea will help the church's two-year campaign to raise $75,000 to make many repairs to the church.
Priority number one is the steeple and tower. "The (water) leak downstairs is a priority," said Leach. "It's like a cancer." The water tracks in from the tower toward the beams along the ceiling, creating holes and ruining the recent paint job. Water insinuated itself under the lathe and wallboard and twisted the framework around stained glass windows in the tower into bizarre heart shapes. The windows are being held in with wire.
And that effort begins this week with a revamp of the 30-foot steeple.
Second on the agenda is painting on the outside of the church, including trimwork. The door to the chapel off to the side of the main church is getting a new lease on life with new Philippine mahogany. Other repairs needed include repointing, soffit repairs, brick sealing, repairing the stopped clock in the tower and perhaps spiffing up the 1870 bell in the steeple.
For his part, Pastor Meyer said if the ladder to steeple were on the outside of the building, "I don't think I could have done it." He joked that when he finished seminary he asked God to put him in a church "with stained glass and a pipe organ --- but not the tower." "I do feel closest to heaven here," he said from his perch above the church.
He was in awe of the generosity of northeastern Connecticut.
Trustee Bob Picard said "I thought we'd do well, but it's blowing my mind."