Construction recently wrapped on the Saint Rose of Lima Church in Short Hills.
SHORT HILLS -- Members of a small New Jersey community have gotten used to seeing a 163-year-old steeple towering above the town. But, with each passing year, area residents say they'd need to tilt their heads just a bit more to view the town landmark.
Locals say the steeple atop the Saint Rose of Lima Church in Short Hills has been slightly tilted for at least 40 years. Founded in 1852, the Roman Catholic church is one of the oldest in northern New Jersey, according to Joan Schultz, Saint Rose's pastoral associate for ministries and development.
Saint Rose, she said, contained some unique features that have attracted worshippers to it for years, including a number of art pieces from New York's famed Schwab Mansion.
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Despite a structural overhaul of the building on its centennial anniversary and a major repair project in the 1980s, an improper drainage system caused the church's crowning steeple to tilt.
"About three years ago, we were getting very concerned (about the tilt)," Schultz said. "The steeple really wasn't straight, so we called in a structural engineer."
The process to fix the lean, she said, is three years in the making. Architects and engineers designed a process that raised the steeple above the church, suspending it while construction went on below, and then repositioning it back on its perch, straight-up. After years of planning, construction was carried out over the summer, with the topper just rejoining the church last month.
"We basically had to come up with a way to lift this tower up...(and) keep it floating for the entire summer," said David Strauss, of Dajon Associates, the contractor for Saint Rose.
The steeple was not in immediate danger of falling, according to Walter Sedovic, the project's architect. But the three-degree, or about 18-inch, lean was poised to continue getting worse over time, he said. The work, according to those who carried it out, was especially sensitive because of the history of the building, and the steeple's meaning to its 7,000 parishioners.
"We wanted to honor the heritage and do the right thing when it came to the history," Sedovic said. The construction, he said, salvaged as much of the original material used in the building as was safe to do, and replaced deteriorated material with locally sourced supplies.
"We wanted to make sure that we kept (the steeple) completely in tact, so that it could continue to be seen and appreciated for years to come," Sedovic said.
The $250,000 repair project did not interrupt services, church officials said. And the about 2,200 families who attend its services were kept abreast of the construction's progress and the retention of the structure's history.
"We wanted to make sure we could (restore) the beauty of this building," Schultz said.
"The steeple has a lot of meaning to us...symbols are an important part of how we express our faith."
Jessica Mazzola may be reached at jmazzola@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessMazzola. Find NJ.com on Facebook.