David's United Church of Christ, Canal Winchester, OH

The Durable Restoration Company is undertaking extensive historic restoration of the steeple and bell tower at David’s United Church of Christ in Canal Winchester. The Gothic Revival style church was built in 1881 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. Due to the height of the steeple, it was unknown for years that there was interior damage to both the steeple and bell tower. It wasn’t until an inspection was done that it was determined restoration was needed. According to Durable’s restoration expert Brad Brobeck, the metal roof of the historic church began to deteriorate and allow moisture infiltration within the bell tower, causing over saturation of the interior brick. This then caused the mortar of the brick to deteriorate eventually leading to the collapse of an interior brick wall and causing damage to the wooden bell tower floor.

The three month restoration project includes a multitude of repairs to bring back the historic integrity of the bell tower and steeple. The main focus of the steeple is to replace all existing architectural metal work. Restoring the metal with hand soldered copper is historically accurate and will make maintenance easier in the future. The church’s finial was removed and will be replicated by our coppersmiths. Within the bell tower, Durable Restoration is restoring the wooden floor and rebuilding the interior brick wall by reusing the existing clay brick and laying it in hydraulic-lime mortar. The slate roof has proven its durability and does not require replacement at this time, instead minor slate repairs will be performed to allow the steeple roof to last another hundred years. The importance of this project is to preserve this structure for many more generations. The correct way to do this is to restore the structure correctly with old-world craft and long-term natural building material.