Melissa Bailey Photo
The prayers on Hillhouse Avenue Friday morning took place not at mass, but for reconstruction of a church steeple.
Mass was canceled at St. Mary’s Church because a section of the steeple flew off Thursday night amid high winds.
Father Joseph Allen (pictured above) stood guard midday Friday as crews waited to patch up the steeple with plyboard. He said the winds were still too high — with gusts of 25 miles per hour — to get the repairs under way. He spent $10,000 to rent the crane for four hours; he expected he might have to wait another day before it was safe for workers to go up 240 feet into the air to fix the steeple.
Melissa Bailey Photo
The crane stood waiting. Police closed off Hillhouse between Grove and Trumbull while the repairs were underway. Temple Street between Grove and Trumbull was reduced to one lane.
Winds gusting above 40 miles per hour blew off a five-foot-by-eight-foot panel around 8 p.m. Thursday, according to Assistant Fire Chief Ralph Black.
The city building and fire departments were on scene Friday morning assessing the damage. A roofing company and structural engineers were expected to be on scene, too.
“We’re devising a plan as soon as we can get a crane there,” Black said. The crane company is Campbellsville Industries of Campbellsville, Kentucky.
“A large panel blew off the steeple at St. Mary’s Church on Hillhouse Avenue causing debris to fall the ground. Closer inspection of the steeple has been deemed necessary,” Yale Police Chief James Perrotti wrote in an email message to the university community.
No one was hurt. The debris struck a car parked on Temple Street.
St. Mary’s is New Haven’s oldest Catholic church.
Father Allen said that, ironically, the church had previously scheduled an evaluation of the spire for this very day.
“The wind was causing havoc and the whole spire was being evaluated,” he said.
He described the panels as imprinted to look like shingles, with horizontal cornices at different angles to make the sheets adhere. “The wind was deteriorating the rivets on the cornices.”
The phone at the church played this recording: “Due to structural repairs, there will be no masses or confession today.”
Father Allen said services and confession would likely resume Saturday. He said there was no special prayer that he could think of for spires.