Tuesday, December 18, 2007

A steeple for the Cathedral!

The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist is finally going to get a steeple! Details in the Post & Courier. [H/t Mattheus Mei.]
It seems that downtown Charleston's skyline soon will get its most welcome new addition in more than a century: a brand new church steeple.

In Charlestonians' hearts, if not necessarily always in their eyes, their historic city's skyline remains dominated by steeples, despite a handful of high rises, container cranes and, most recently, a new bridge.

So it's no wonder why plans to add a steeple to the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist breezed through the Board of Architectural Review so easily last week.

Architect Glenn Keyes actually was anticipating at least some nay-saying, if only because the Broad Street church has existed for a century in its current form.

The cathedral was begun in 1890, and it finally was consecrated in 1907. Patrick Keely, a prolific architect for the Catholic church, designed it to resemble the 1851 Cathedral of St. John the Baptist and St. Finbar, which burned in 1861 and whose ruins finally collapsed in the 1886 earthquake.
This is awesome! Now to find the money .... :) And hopefully, Bishop England's See will have a new Shepherd before work on this steeple starts! Anyone in Rome listening? :)

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