Norman K. Styer from LoudounNow wrote this beautiful article about the work our restoration team is completing on the St. James Church.
“Since June, stonemasons from The Witmer Group have been meticulously restoring the 128-year-old stone walls of the St. James’ Episcopal Church on Leesburg’s Cornwall Street. Thomas helped select The Witmer Group for the renovation. The Pennsylvania-based masonry restoration company’s past projects include the historic Burnside Bridge at the Antietam Battlefield. For more than two months, stonemasons worked on the church’s bell tower section. The scaffolding was recently removed to unveil the results of the effort. Church member Tony McGraw has been coordinating the work with the Witmer crew. He sees big changes from the effort from the restored details of the bell tower’s brownstone arch to the color variation in the other wall stones.
“Now that the scaffolding got removed you can hear people coming by walking or driving by saying ‘great job,’” McGraw said. “Now you’ve got the distinctive stones because it gets back to the way it was intended. All of us have different eyes. We see things differently. To me, I’m thinking about, wow, there’s a lot of different variation of colors. It’s stunning. All sudden you start seeing the range of colors whereas before it was this all dirty stone,” he said. Senior Warden Fred Williams, who lives just down the street from the church, sees big changes resulting from the bell tower work. “It’s brighter and somehow seems to be standing up straighter,” he said. “There’s a core group of the leadership who saw that saw the need, and everyone kind of pulled together and said, ‘we can do this.’ Just like the women who raised the funds to buy the land from the Claggetts. You know, 150 years later they would come back and say, now ‘we can do this. Let’s do it for the next 100 years,’” Williams said.” Congratulations to our restoration team for this beautiful tribute, and continue creating excellent craftsmanship that honors history and transforms buildings for years to come!
PHASE 2 of the project will start in spring of 2024.
Read the whole article here: https://www.loudounnow.com/news/st-james-shines-brighter-with-ongoing-restoration/article_9dd3304e-4747-11ee-b62c-47f110cadc43.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share&fbclid=IwAR3dWrbdMEmtkQzqeoW5Yh7pc_gyqFJ0_pRyIMNz2AHolPuizUMcx9EhkQc
