Interior of the nave, Thursday, January 21.
Since the holidays have been over, a lot of progress has been made on the work inside the Church. As this picture shows, with Project Manager Mike Davis and Treasurer Dave Lavoie in the foreground, the rose window’s protective covering has been removed and the large scaffolding sitting in the “narthex” space has been disassembled. In fact, the portion ceiling under which it sat has been completely replaced with a new, firmer, most accoustically responsive solution. Underneath, ductwork occupies nearly the entire crawl space. And above that, a new subfloor is also nearly complete.
Farther up the nave, the space made ready for the super-quiet air handler (the component that pushes hot or cold air through the ducts or pulls air to be recycled out) is now fully occupied by the unit. Workers from Southern Comfort, the HVAC contractor have been hard at work assembling the unit. Once in operation, the unit will be activated so that the inside of the church can acclimate to once again to a steady temperature.
The new entrance on the garden side of the church, believed to have been a drop-off point at the turn of the 20th century for carriages entering from Church Street, is nearly ready to receive people once again. New steps at the front of the church will invite visitors entering from Tryon Street. One spectacular feature of the porch is the reuse of windows and a wood screen from the chapel.
