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Tower Takedown Videos
Early videos of the FPC Meetinghouse Tower Takedown.
Here are two video views of Takedown Day, Wednesday Sept. 9, 2015, at First Parish Church in East Derry, NH. Read more and see many photos in the blog post for Takedown day.
Big day for the Meetinghouse Rehabilitation effort at First Parish Church in East Derry, NH, with the lift and landing of the damaged tower top. Great work by lead Preservation Timber Framing and also Keeley Crane Service. (Sept. 9, 2015; six minutes)
A quick, time-lapse view of the top lift and landing.
See also the live webcam and saved time-lapse views on the First Parish Church website.
Tower Takedown: Day 6, Thursday Aug. 20
Today the Preservation Timber Framing experts focused on removing the bed and cove molding covering the joint between the belfry and the tower base.
First they had to adjust the staging platforms to work at this lower level, not easy 65' in the air. Then they very carefully removed each piece of trim to keep it intact. As with all the old elements of the tower, every piece of molding gets numbered and cataloged and will go into storage for its eventual refurbishment and placement back on the finished tower.
The crew also began to plan and build the new roof cap that will seal the tower after the takedown. They'll build it on the ground, and the crane will fly it up after lowering the top. (Unfortunately there's still not a firm commitment date from the crane company, but we're aiming for around Sept. 2nd.)
Ed Bell and the PTF crew must work at another job site tomorrow and will return to FPC Monday. They secured the scaffold ladder and covered the tower window openings with plastic for the long weekend.
FPC volunteers have also been hard at work. Paul Dionne led the effort to remove the pulley and cable for the clock-driving weight box. That pulley was attached to the clock room ceiling/belfry floor, and had to come down for the top separation. We unfortunately won't be able to keep the clock running during the rehabilitation work, so restoring its function in a couple years is an exciting milestone to look forward to.
Thanks also to volunteers Ken Gould who cleared the brush from the mound of dirt sitting right where we'll probably place the tower top, and to Bill Wheeler and Harry Carter who are making that dirt mound disappear.
Tower Takedown: Day 4, Aug. 18
The PTF crew continues to prepare the top.
Work continued on the rigging and preparation of the top for its removal.
PTF workers disassembled components and lowered them to the ground, including the belfry screening, railings, and its roof/floor. That roof originally consisted of cotton fabric that was shellacked and covered with wooden shakes. Later the shakes were replaced with copper. Today they took the copper off, and found it was placed over the original fabric. PTF will take the copper to a reclamation center, and the church will get some funds from i for future rehab!
New weight estimates for the Tower Top (37,000 pounds!) and its considerable height require a larger crane than originally thought. Reps from the new crane company visited today to check out the site, and we should have a date for the Takedown soon. (It very likely will be more like Sept. 2nd than August 26th.)
