Immaculate Conception Catholic Church
Roslyn, Washington
Monday, March 17, 2003
Medieval solution for fragile church
ROSLYN -- With a design borrowed from medieval times, a Bainbridge Island architect is proposing a series of wing walls to buttress Roslyn's historic Catholic church and keep it from tipping over.
Now a campaign to save the 115-year-old wood structure may have raised enough money to get the job started, if not completed.
Although still short by nearly half the $250,000 originally sought for the work, parishioners report that $140,000 is in the bank.
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| Gilbert W. Arias / P-I | ||
| Immaculate Conception Catholic Church began to list soon after it was built by immigrant coal miners from Eastern Europe. It is now closed to worship. | ||
Bainbridge Island architect Ron Lacey, who boasts several other church restorations to his credit, says his concept, based on time-tested methods used to build parish churches in England, provides structural stability while preserving the old building's historical significance.
Built before the turn of the last century by immigrant coal miners from Eastern Europe, Immaculate Conception Catholic Church began to list southward almost from the start. Guy wires attached high on the north wall and anchored in concrete were installed by volunteers about 15 years ago.
But concern for the building's overall stability came to a head after the Nisqually Quake two years ago, and the sanctuary was closed to general worship.
Parishioners have moved to St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in nearby Cle Elum but want their old church back.
"It has so much history," said Dena Glonzo-Pugh, whose father's family members were Roslyn pioneers. "You think of all the generations before you. Everything is original."
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| This architect's sketch illustrates how wing walls would buttress the wooden sides of Immaculate Conception church. Parishioners have raised about $140,000 of the projected $250,000 cost of the work. | ||
Keeping that originality intact is the architect's goal.
"I'm not certain we can pull it back to perfect plumb," Lacey said. "But we will be able to preserve the look of that era with some buttresses."
What happened to Immaculate Conception over the years without them is what happened to Jason Lee Memorial United Methodist Church in Blackfoot, Idaho, over the years.
In the 1950s, church leaders decided to "modernize" their structure by removing buttresses that had been part of the design.
"Now the buttresses are going back."
Lacey said his fix is nothing new but follows Romanesque concepts developed in the Middle Ages and adapted later by small English parishes.
Lacey's structures won't be nearly as elegant as the 770-year- old flying buttresses that support the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. But, he said, they'll work.
"They should be about 4 to 6 inches thick, projecting 4 to 6 feet out from the wall to form wings -- five vertical structures for the north and south walls set perpendicular between the windows."
Their footings will match the church's foundations and likely will be raised from there using steel sheeted with plywood and siding to match.
"We still have to engineer it," Lacey said. "But I think it's a solution they will like, and it will preserve the look of churches of that era."
