Hope Anew That Old Whalers' Church Steeple Will Serve as a Beacon

Ever since the towering 185-foot-tall steeple that once crowned the First Presbyterian (Old Whalers’) Church of Sag Harbor was blown off its perch by the 1938 hurricane, which roared across Long Island 84 years ago Wednesday, there has been talk of rebuilding it.

Today, members of the church’s Session, or governing body, hope the steeple, which once served as a beacon to whalers returning home, can soon become a new beacon of sorts, by using it to conceal antennas for cell phone carriers.

Financing the reconstruction with cell antenna revenue is not a new idea. In 2008, the church was close to moving forward with such a plan, but the stock market swoon that ushered in the Great Recession dried up donations. And the wording of the final contract offered by the carrier that would have allowed it to back out of the deal if there were major changes in technology proved too risky for the congregation, said architect Randy Croxton, a member of the Session and long a champion of restoring the national historic landmark to its original glory.

But with Verizon having recently proposed the construction of a new monopole cell tower to replace WLNG’s old lattice broadcasting tower, the opportunity to construct a modern steeple whose interior could hold a number of revenue-generating antennas was too good to pass up.

Croxton, as moderator of the Session’s historical committee, and Gail Bruesewitz, as moderator of its finance committee, wrote to the Sag Harbor Village Board last month on behalf of the congregation offering the church as an alternate site for the proposed WLNG tower.

Croxton and Bruesewitz’s letter noted that a study done as part of the 2008 effort showed that a new steeple “would be an ideal location to provide cell service throughout our geographic area for vital East End emergency services and could handle the cell service needs of four different carriers, providing better service for thousands of local customers.”

The Village Board has just begun its review of the WLNG tower and has not indicated whether it will seek alternative locations, although neighbors have risen up in opposition to the WLNG site.

There have long been complaints about the poor quality of cell service, including for emergency calls, and village officials have said for several years they would like to see it improved.

This week, Croxton conceded that much is needed to be done before the steeple project is ready to get off the ground, but at the same time, he said it is important to act expeditiously while the opportunity is available, and he said he would like to have a plan in place in just a few months.

Croxton said he has already consulted with the New York State Historic Preservation Office, Nat Oppenheimer of Silman Structural Engineers, with whom the congregation worked on the last reconstruction effort, and others in preparation for launching the plan, which would have to be approved by the Session as well as the Long Island Presbytery.

Croxton said everyone asks him how much it will cost and how fast can it be done. The answer is he has yet to put together a budget, although it will certainly be in the millions of dollars, or finalize how it will be paid for, whether by donations or deals with carriers, who might be willing to underwrite some of the construction costs as well as pay monthly rental fees.

“The unique cell coverage from this high point in the village and the value of an iconic reconnection to the ancestral aspirations of the founders of Sag Harbor will need to be ground into, and inform that equation,” he said of the budget.

Nor is there a scope of work to describe what the project will actually entail, although Croxton said many of the ideas proposed in 2008 would still be viable, such as using composite materials instead of lumber and metal, both to reduce the weight of the structure and guarantee better service for the antennas.

Croxton added that the church also plans a less spectacular renovation project that would replace rotting windows and make other exterior improvements.

There are those who say the ornate steeple overpowered the rest of the building, an example of Egyptian Revival architecture, but Croxton is not among them.

When the building was designated a national landmark in 1994, the nominating citation noted that the church embodied the history and culture of the whaling era, he said.

Wealthy whalers, who led the congregation, chose as their architect Minard Lafever, who had begun his career as a lowly carpenter before rising to become the most prestigious church architect in America. The cost of the building, for which $10,000 to $12,000 was budgeted, ballooned to about $17,500 by the time it was completed. For a brief period, it was the tallest structure on Long Island, including Brooklyn.

With the church built on a hill about 80 feet above sea level, the steeple was the focal point of the village as well as a landmark for ships in the bay. It is said the steeple could be seen by ships rounding Montauk Point on their way back to their home port.

Although the steeple was blown off by the powerful 1938 hurricane that passed through 84 years ago, Croxton likes to point out that Lafever’s design stood for 94 years and likely would have survived the hurricane, which had sustained winds of 120 mph when it crossed Long Island, except for an ill-fated renovation project in 1910.

As part of his design, Lafever fitted the steeple with a number of louver windows that would open to offset the effect of strong winds, Croxton said. He also devised a drainage system to remove the water that would enter the steeple through those windows. However, the drainage pipes were not maintained, and when they clogged, water pooled around the base of the steeple and began to rot supports.

The renovation crew sealed the windows to prevent water from entering the steeple, and they used steel plates to shore up the steeple’s supports, but they failed to attach three of those supports, wrongly assuming that the weight of the steeple would hold it in place, never taking into account the kind of uplift a powerful hurricane wind could create.

As early as 1952, after the congregation successfully raised $28,000 to repair a sagging ceiling in the sanctuary, there have been hopes that the steeple would rise again. At that time, an effort to raise an estimated $60,000 to pay for the project languished.

Rebuilding the steeple was considered again in the 1990s as part of the successful effort to have the church designated a national landmark. That effort also failed to take off, as did the 2008 endeavor.

Croxton said rebuilding the steeple would be a tribute to the vision and ambition of Sag Harbor’s mid-19th century leading citizens. “It was a gutsy time,” he said of the decision to build such a huge church and top it off with an even bigger steeple. “Just think of what it would be like to see that thing rebuilt.”