Can’t top this
For decades, the cross on top of the steeple at a historic Oklahoma City church served as a beacon of hope for people from miles around.
Deterioration sounded a death knell for the Christian symbol in 2011, but a recent steeple raising has brought it back to life.
A new majestic belfry, steeple and cross topper were installed atop the bell tower at Eighth Street Church of the Nazarene on Wednesday.
Leaders, members and supporters of the congregation were on hand for the daylong process and some of them commemorated the occasion by writing their names inside the steeple before it was lifted up to the tower.
The Rev. Chris Pollock, the church’s lead pastor, said the congregation always wanted to restore the belfry and steeple but the project was not part of an extensive renovation project for the church building.
After the project was completed, the congregation moved into the old German Methodist church building on Easter Sunday. They pledged then to raise funds to restore the bell tower to its former glory.
Pollock said the steeple project cost about $80,000 and served as the fulfillment of one of the congregation’s dreams for their building built in 1907. He said the steeple had to be taken down in 2011 because it had deteriorated. Pollock said a neighbor found the finial or topper in the trash and kept it in her garden. When she learned about the building restoration, she let the church use it to help replicate the original.
Architectural Design Group and Lingo Construction worked on the project.
Scott Dedmon, an ADG architect, said the new bell tower elements were 30 feet tall, from the bottom of the belfry to the top of the finial or topper placed atop the steeple. He said the bell in the tower was in decent shape and was simply repainted.
Dedmon said ADG designed the belfry, steeple and finial working from old photographs of the church.
“It’s about as close of a replication to the original as possible,” said Dedmon, who attends Eighth Street Church.
“It’s been wonderful — a real pleasure to get to be a part of it,” he said.
Located in Midtown at the corner of NW 8 and Lee Avenue, the historic building has been transformed several times over the years, from housing its original congregation to serving as headquarters for the Oklahoma United Methodist affiliate Skyline Urban Ministry’s food pantry. Nearby St. Anthony Hospital purchased the property from the Methodists. In 2011, the hospital sold it to Pollock’s congregation.
Pollock said according to historian and author Bradley Wynn’s book “Oklahoma City’s Midtown: Images of America,” a St. Anthony nurse said she often prayed looking out at the church steeple with the cross on top. “This old steeple was a symbol of hope in its earliest days,” Pollock said. “We want the symbol to be one of hope in this new day.”