After 116 years standing beside Montecito’s All Saints By-the-Sea Episcopal Church, the building’s historic stone bell tower is coming down.
In light of cracks and the lack of a foundation and internal support, the church chose to dismantle the tower before a sizable-enough earthquake could damage it — or worse.
The stones will start coming down Monday and will be used to rebuild a more durable bell tower with a seismically secure core, said the Rev. Aimée Eyer-Delevett, the church’s rector.
All Saints Church, located at 83 Eucalyptus Lane a block from Miramar Beach, is also embarking on a series of major upgrades to its sanctuary, which itself has detached from its rubble-stone foundation.
“As you can imagine, the structural engineering that was available in 1900 is not quite up to our standards anymore,” Eyer-Delevett told Noozhawk.
The church was established in 1898 with a temporary chapel, and two years later, the first cornerstone of today’s sanctuary was laid and the bell tower was built.
The bell itself, Eyer-Delevett said, was provided in 1901 by one of the church’s founding families as a memorial for their deceased daughters.
Until 1898, churchgoers living or vacationing in Montecito had to take an hour-and-a-half horse-and-carriage ride into Santa Barbara to worship, she said.
As the tower is disassembled, each stone will be numbered, hauled off-site and cut to fit around the new core to make a more-secure exact replica of the original. For the time being, the tower area is fenced off and inaccessible, and the off-site work will ensure that no noise, dust or runoff will bother parishioners or neighbors, Eyer-Delevett said.
The rebuilding will be done over the next six months.
“What we’ll end up with is a really seismically secure building, which hopefully will be a place in the future that the community can find refuge in if we need a shelter of some sort should the need arise,” Eyer-Delevett said.
Not only will the building be physically secure in the event of an earthquake, she noted, but the church is already stocked with about three days-worth of food, water, blankets and other supplies for up to 200 people.
The Sanctuary Preservation and Readiness Project kicked off in 2014, after the tower and sanctuary’s seismic vulnerability were determined in 2012. The How Firm Our Foundation campaign was established to raise funds for the capital projects.
In addition to the bell tower and sanctuary foundation work, the church plans to replace its current pipe organ, add Americans With Disabilities Act-compliant restrooms and other accessibility improvements, modify its interior to accommodate seaside and memorial chapels, provide new landscaping and increase its endowment and investment reserves.
Last Sunday, the church held a Bell Tower Construction Celebration with its regular services.
Click here for more information about All Saints By-the-Sea Episcopal Church, or call 805.969.4771.
— Noozhawk staff writer Sam Goldman can be reached at sgoldman@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.