DATE: Wednesday, September 24, 1997         TAG: 9709240461

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS AND JOAN C. STANUS, STAFF WRITERS 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   80 lines

SKY-HIGH REPAIRS THE SPIRE OF ST. MARY'S CATHOLIC CHURCH COMES DOWN TO BE FIXED UP.

The 80-foot-tall, 25-ton steeple sashayed toward Earth, swinging to and fro like a Southern belle's ball gown.

Then the wedding cake tiers of Gothic bric-a-brac, lifted from atop Virginia's oldest Catholic church, settled gently onto a concrete pad in the St. Mary's Catholic Church parking lot Tuesday.

The 140-year-old tower has decorated the worshiping place of the area's only predominantly African-American Catholic parish since 1858. Located in downtown Norfolk between the Berkley Bridge off-ramp and Tidewater Gardens public housing neighborhood, St. Mary's is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Some 900 families worship at the church, which is to be refurbished at a cost of $1.3 million. But already saddled with a $350,000 bill from previous restorations, St. Mary's parishioners do not have the money to pay for the new repairs. So far, about $60,000 in private money has been raised for the project.

Frank Spicer Sr., a Norfolk businessman, launched a fund-raising campaign last fall. Although he is Baptist, Spicer has helped the church raise more than $1 million to finance past restorations. He plans to raffle a vehicle this winter to help pay for the repairs.

Out of financial considerations, church members had discussed permanently capping the roof and storing the spire, but ultimately decided it must be put back.

``This is a very important church and tremendously important to Norfolk's skyline,'' said John Baldridge, architect and engineer for the project.

Money in hand or not, there was no choice but to bring the listing spire to Earth. Timbers that hold the galvanized gingerbread exterior in place had begun to rot and crumble. According to Baldridge, ``nothing but gravity'' had kept the spire in place for some time. It tilted 18 inches to the south.

Tuesday afternoon, as workmen and onlookers waited for a mammoth crane to groan into high gear for the lift, the gold cross that adorned the top of the steeple lay on its side along the edge of the parking lot.

Finally, after several delays, the crane revved up, and the dark gap marking the line where the octagonal ``broach'' spire had been sawed from its lowest 12 feet began to slowly widen. Then, with a midair twist, the pinnacle swung south and headed to Earth, shards of galvanized iron curling up where it had been sheared off, chunks of rotted timber falling to the ground.

Bringing the aged spire down safely was an engineering challenge, said Baldridge.

``We were afraid it would collapse on the way down,'' he said. But workmen reinforced and cabled each leg of the octagon so that the whole thing lifted at once.

On its 16-foot concrete pad, the spire is now anchored by cables attached to anchors sunk 17 feet into the ground. Repairs to the steeple, the church's roof, clock tower and exterior mortar are not expected to be completed until next spring.

Construction workers labored for a month preparing the spire for Tuesday's move.

``It's been a horrendous undertaking,'' said Bill Hitchings, president of Baker Roofing of Norfolk. He said the spire had shifted more than 3 inches since work began this summer.

``We found lots of decay, and the more we looked, the more we found. It had deteriorated to the point where it was unsafe.''

Spicer, for one, has vowed to make sure the landmark remains intact.

``No matter what religion you are, we need to preserve this church for our grandchildren,'' he said.

Said Monsignor Walter Barrett, the parish's priest: ``The church really belongs to the city, but the full burden of this is falling on our parishioners, and they're pledged to do it right.'' MEMO: For more information, call St. Mary's Preservation Fund, 625-5833. ILLUSTRATION: BILL TIERNAN color photos/The Virginian-Pilot

A crane from Tidewater Crane and Rigging Co. lowers St. Mary's spire

to a cement pad in the downtown church's parking lot for restoration

that is estimated to take six months to a year to complete.

Micah Williams, 3, at left, and other members of the day-care class

at St. Mary's Academy watch workers prepare to lower the landmark

spire that has long been a part of Norfolk's downtown skyline.

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