Story by Margaret Foster / Aug. 30, 2006

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Before hurricane season, a crane removed the damaged steeple of a 147-year-old church in Yarmouth, Maine, today.

"If we had a hurricane, this one was in a lot of jeopardy," says steeplejack Arron Sturgis, president of Berwick-based Preservation Timber Framing, which managed the $38,000 removal project. "Most congregations in Maine have that sinking feeling: You look up there, and [the steeple] just doesn't look plumb. It's not just Maine; it's New England-wide."

The First Universalist Church's 45-foot-tall wooden spire is now in a temporary structure in the church's front lawn, where it will remain until the parish can raise the $300,000 to restore it.

"We are feeling really optimistic and hopeful," says Lisa Perkins, chair of the Steeple Preservation Committee of the First Universalist Church. "We know that many other congregations have removed their steeples, and they have been sitting in storage for 25 years. We don't want to let that happen."

In June, five months after structural engineers told church leaders that the steeple had deteriorated and could blow off in hurricane-force winds, the 245-member congregation voted to remove the National Register-listed Italianate church's belfry and spire.

Many old steeples fail because of deferred maintenance or cheap repairs, Sturgis says. But many parishes lack the money to maintain their aging temples.

"A lot of old historic churches in New England are experiencing this same sort of thing," Perkins says. "Many congregations are small, and they just don't have the money to restore their steeples, so one by one, they're opting to take them down."

This winter, the First Universalist Church's steeple will be safe, but the church has a very different look. "It really changes the character of the town," Sturgis says. "In Yarmouth, two out of four churches' [steeples] are down. It's kind of dramatic."