16 March 2011

St Paulus Tower Removed

Today the contractor that is stabilizing St Paulus Kirche removed the remnants of the tower that have been exposed to the weather for 2 years. I have no idea how 3CDC is paying for this stabilization, but I am thankful that they have taken on this important project. Unfortunately, the contractor removed the metal roof about a month ago, and it then proceeded to rain every day for 3 weeks! I would think they could have waited until May. The interior had original canvas applied to the plaster, and the ceiling had unique decorative medallions. The reuse of this structure will be very difficult and probably very expensive. But since it is the oldest extant protestant brick structure in the city (ca 1850) and is so prominent in OTR, I think it is necessary.

View of whole north side of church with top of tower removed
 


The clock level of the tower... on the ground
 


mortise VI
 


XIII
 


This huge timber was vertical in the center of the tower for 160 years, and once extended up into the steeple. Even the remnant of it is huge.
 


But what is really fascinating, is this, a close-up of the huge central timber, where you can see the gears that drove the 4 clock faces! Unfortunately, all this is in a dumpster:
 
Someone with a big truck and more energy and space than I have should rescue some of this!

See here for a 2008 post on this building.

Photos from the hurricane Ike here.

6 comments:

Quimbob said...

wow
this might sound dumb but just because it's going in a dumpster, does that mean it's going to a dump?

CityKin said...

^not sure. Maybe not.

Anonymous said...

Wow handmade. I wonder if the tower will ever be rebuilt.
Those timbers alone are priceless as it is from old growth trees. Couldn't they be cut up into planks or something?
The painted canvas - at least the main part of the big one from the West wall was removed, rolled and stored quite a while ago.
Thanks for the super pictures - they should be in the historical society archives.

CityKin said...

^ did someone save the canvas that was rolled-up? I was wondering about that.

Anonymous said...

Last I knew (seven or eight years ago(?)) it was still rolled up in a relatively safe place - as long as these people who find it know what they have. As I recall, one roll of it was fairly long not exactly easy to transport or hang in ones house.

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