| BY GRETCHEN KEISER
Staff Writer
ROME--A steeple planned for St. Mary's Church 70 years ago was put into
place on the Catholic church May 14 as the linking element in a contemporary
renovation and expansion project.
The three-stage process of erecting the bell tower began with the
installation of the base, then the addition of the steeple and finally the
placement of a 5-foot cross at the steeple’s peak by the pastor, Father
Jim Miceli. “I don’t like heights, but that was a once in a lifetime
opportunity,” said the pastor, who put on a safety harness for his ride to
the top of the 120-foot bell tower and took a video camera.
Designed in 1929 by Michael McInerney, a Pennsylvania-born architect who was
a monk at Belmont Abbey in North Carolina, St. Mary’s Church was
originally conceived with a steeple to the right of the entrance. A rendering
showed where the architect envisioned it. Most likely cost prevented it from
being done at the time the church was built out of Stone Mountain granite and
dedicated in May 1931.
In a prolific career, McInerney designed over 500 structures, including 220
churches, in a style known as American Benedictine. The church he designed for
St. Mary’s replaced an original structure built in 1874. The parish added
a school in 1945.
When St. Mary’s Parish began planning an expansion of the church and
new addition seven years ago, the bell tower was incorporated into the plans,
although in a different location to the left of the entrance and with
contemporary materials. Functional as well as aesthetically pleasing, the stone
portion of the tower serves as the stair column connecting the upper and lower
levels of the new parish center.
Fabricated in Texas with a steel frame and fiberglass skin, the 20,000-pound
structure traveled on a flatbed truck and arrived after one mishap with a
bridge in Alabama.
The new steeple changes the skyline of Rome, Father Miceli said, as it is
visible off Broad Street from many directions at a height equivalent to a
12-story building. It will be illuminated.
“The whole project has been very well received,” in the Rome
community, he said. “The new building is very sympathetic to the old
building. The whole facade is stone, which is what the old structure is. The
bell tower caps off the structure.”
The addition, which should be completed in the fall, will include church
offices, a nursery, parish hall, bride’s room and adult education library.
The church will be expanded to include a right and left transept on either side
of the altar, a new high altar, new stained glass windows, new organ and pews
and a new glass vestibule connecting the old and new buildings. Seating in the
sanctuary will expand from 270 to 400.
Architects for the project are Kermit B. Marsh & Associates, Atlanta,
and contractors are Colyer, Lloyd of Anniston, Ala. The new steeple was
transacted by Ed Gutknecht of Rainsville Co. When completed, the church will be
rededicated and the new structures blessed by Archbishop John F. Donoghue.
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