WATERBURY -- A Waterbury landmark, which began to crumble, dangerously, last winter, is now in the process of receiving a major makeover.
But, that can’t be completed until millions of dollars are raised.
The beautiful All Saints Parish, along South Main Street in Waterbury, is about to look completely different than it has since it was built nearly 100 years ago.
The church, visible from most of Waterbury, is now being forced to completely reconstruct its two deteriorating marble and brick steeples.
“We have engineers that examined them, sent them for samples and made sure that they had to come down because we were hoping to fix them in place,” said Paul Iadarola, a Deacon for the church.
Moisture was the culprit in leading to some marble blocks falling from the spires last December.
“9 o’clock in the morning we get a call that stone was in the street,” Iadarola said.
The smallest of the tumbling stones weighed in at nearly 15 pounds each. And, from the inside of the steeple, brick also started falling.
“So, we had to immediately start scaffolding the street, protecting the sidewalk from people walking by,” said Iadarola.
Masses have not been held here at All Saints Parish since the blocks fell in December. Taking down the spires will take a while longer.
“We expect to reopen the church by mid September,” Iadarola said.
Tuesday, the first of the two 1,800 pound crosses, that have topped off the steeples for a century, was removed.
“They were absolutely in perfect shape,” said Iadarola. “Rebuilding the spires will depend on fundraising.”
As many of the existing marble blocks as possible will be used in the reconstruction.
