Jan Lewandoski talk prior to beginning work on OWC steeple
This Sunday evening, July 23rd at 8:00 PM at the Old West Church, Jan Lewandoski, well known timer framer and steeple jack, will give a talk with slides at the Old West Church. We decided to have the condition of the steeple surveyed at the Oct 5, 2014 Annual Meeting of the Old West Church Association. After having both Jay Southgate & Jan Lewandoski survey the steeple we choose Jan Lewandoski. He will begin work on the steeple next week.
In 18th and 19th century New England a great number of tall wooden church steeples were constructed. They were often called staged or storied steeples because they were composed of a number of discreet components designed to produce a harmonious whole. The various components were called towers, lanterns, octagons, belfries, cupolas, and spires. In most cases their framing was “telescoping” in nature, with each stage beginning deep within the stage below it, and not framed tightly to it. This facilitated erection of these tall objects , since the various stages could be framed and finished on the ground, then lifted sequentially either along the outside of the tower, or brought up from within. I have abundant documentation of these procedures.
My talk Sunday night will discuss these methods of erection , with several historic examples as well as images of restoration projects carried out the same way. Beginning in 1986, when I rebuilt the roof trusses and steeple of the burned Weatherfield Church (1826) I have completed approximately 20 major structural restorations of steeples, mostly in Vermont but in Cambridge, Mass. and Salem, NJ and two locations in Maine as well. Examples in Vermont include the Castleton Federated Church, the Church on the Common in Craftsbury, the Strafford Town House, the Norwich Congregational Church, the Westford Community Church and many others.
I will have a model of the framing of the Weathersfield steeple to further illustrate this procedure.

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