Main Street loses its steeple?

[sheclown]

http://www.churchsteeples.com/Products/Steeples.aspx?gclid=CJ6MsqWozLACFUHatgod4iJsVQ

In case anyone needs to know.

They do take credit cards.

[BackinJax05]

Anyone checked on Craig's List for the missing steeple?

Oh my GOD!

It looks like it was beheaded

Our society will not be remembered by the monuments we have built, but by those we've torn down. (Or in this case, mutilated)

[Timkin]

I noticed the Steeple was missing a couple weeks ago.. thought possibly it was removed to be repaired?  ( Makes sense..it would be REALLY hard to repair in place up on the Church.

This happens to be one of my favorite Brick Church Structures.. I believe it was once called Main St. Baptist Church .

Has anyone contacted the Church to see what the situation is with the steeple being removed?

If this is the City's error, I completely agree the City needs to , POST HASTE , make this right.

It could also be that the Church is having financial difficulties and cannot afford , for now , to repair or replace the steeple.

In any case, I hope it will be restored. it is a beautiful old Church Building...

Just a side note and sign of the times... the Wrought Iron Fence around it , I presume is to help keep vandals and taggers away.. pretty sad but the era we live in.

[sheclown]

Yes, the church has been contacted -- our favorite attorney did that.  Waiting to hear back.

Financial difficulties are not an excuse here.  Besides, there was steel girder-work supporting it so how bad could it have been?

[John P]

as posted on myspringfield

We have somewhat of a tragedy on our hands. You may have seen published in the SHEC newsletter, buildings having two addresses and therefore counted twice. This happened at corners.
You may have noticed that the steeple has gone from the church at 8th and Main. It was taken down, not needing a COA, since it was believed that it was not a contributing building. Sadly the building had two addresses, one on 8th, which was the Sunday School and one on Main which was the church. The permission to take down the steeple was done under the 8th Street address, which was not a contributing address. Had it been checked further it would have been found out that the portion on which the steeple proudly stood was included in the survey and should have come under strict guidelines. Under the present circumstances they are not required to replace the steeple. We do not know if this can be changed without a challenge which would probably finish up before the city council. At the moment we have lost an important part of our Main Street skyline.

Chris Farley
     
    Posts: 619
    Joined: Tue Dec 15, 2009 8:26 pm

http://www.myspringfield.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=1968&p=15124#p15124

Apparently there has been some misunderstanding around the location of this steeple? 

If Springfield has indeed lost this very important part of its historic fabric, and lost it to such an idiotic mistake (the educational building....?  Does it even have a steeple?  Exactly how many steeples are on Main Street?  How is there any confusion?)

...you simply must, at the end of the day, ask yourself, "why is the city of Jacksonville so eager to knock down Springfield?"

It looks like the church is not a contributing building afterall. There is a beautiful postcard of the church that was there before the current one linked to that thread. I wish that was still there.

[fsujax]

Shame on this congregation for destroying an important symbol in our neighborhood. I am sure they could have raised funds to repair the steeple. Almost all churches go through fundraising campaigns to make capital improvements, why couldn't they have done it?

[John P]

Why don't you ask them before you start making accusations?

[thelakelander]

Here was the previous church at 8th & Main in 1958:

[mimiayers]

That was a lovely piece of the landscape of historic Springfield that will sorely be missed.

[sheclown]

I just talked to Joel.

Believe it or not, the steeple and its church is non-contributing and therefore gets no protection.

But it is shameful to have done this... on the church's part, on the city's part.  Perhaps we could have helped saved the steeple if given some warning or a chance to raise some funds.

Now, it is gone.  I didn't hear any hope for replacements.

Anyone check the scrap metal places?  Perhaps there is a steeple belonging to the people of Springfield lying in the back.

[carpnter]

Has anyone thought to ask the church why they chose to remove it instead of repairing it?  The cost to remove it and repair the roof was $58k, it could be that there were some serious structural issues with it and the cost to repair it was significantly higher than the $58k it was going to take to remove it so they chose to remove it instead of repairing it. 

[sheclown]

[sheclown]

[sheclown]

[sheclown]