COLUMBUS, Ind. — The local architect leading the refurbishing of the 166-foot iconic, brick First Christian Church tower referred to its construction in 1942 as nearly something of an apparent miracle.
“The tower looks very simple, but its construction took incredible skill and technical ability that stretched the norms,” Louis Joyner said. “Building a structure that tall, with sheer, unbroken surfaces was a real feat. It’s hard to keep it straight, and plumb, with brick colors evenly distributed, mortar color consistent — all while leaning over the edge of the building (without scaffolding).”
Just part of the cutting-edge scaffolding recently took about a month to put in place for the $3.2 million project on the Eliel Saarinen creation on Fifth Street in downtown Columbus. Work is scheduled to be completed in November by F.A. Wilhelm Construction Co.of Indianapolis.
“It originally took six months to build (in 1940 and 1941), and it’s taking us 10 months to repair,” Joyner said.
A detailed and humorous Joyner spoke Saturday to a group of 75 people at Helen Haddad Hall in downtown Columbus during another installment of Landmark Columbus Foundation’s ongoing Progressive Preservation series. Those attending ranged from Jeff Logston, chairman of the First Christian Capital Projects Fundraising Committee, to former Columbus Area Visitor Center tour guides who still love the structure to faculty from Indiana University’s J. Irwin Miller Architecture Program.
The church and the tower were the first Modernist buildings in a city that has earned global acclaim for its tall, architectural legacy. That realm of acclaim included national media coverage in then-widely-esteemed publications such as Time and Newsweek magazines. In fact, Richard McCoy, Landmark Columbus’ executive director, read from those publications’ major stories in 1941 and 1942 about the church’s construction — the most expensive outlay for any church at that time.
“The tower has become a kind of defining characteristic of this town,” McCoy said.
For the complete story and more photos, see Wednesday’s Republic.
