About two weekends ago, Old North Church congregants entered their church’s attic and came across wildlife that decided to take up residency in the house of worship.
“We were hauling dump barrels up into the attic, and a raccoon ran right in front of us,” said Sally Sands. “And that raccoon turned out to have four babies.”
Sands shared the story in an interview with the Marblehead Current to highlight several issues that need to be addressed with Old North Church’s historic property.
The congregation has launched a capital campaign — called “Keep It Ringing” — to restore its bell tower, which sits beneath an iconic golden cod weathervane.
The church has so far raised nearly two-thirds of its goal, but church leaders are now seeking financial support from the community at large.
“We’re now up to $650,329 of a $1 million goal, and this is without going public,” said Sands, the capital campaign’s chair, following Sunday’s service. “This is just from lead donors and committee members, and we’re just starting to get donations from the congregation and the public.”
Founded in 1635, Marblehead’s Old North Church has been providing ministry and service to the town for centuries. The church was originally organized by a group of fishermen and mariners to alleviate the burden of traveling to Salem. The current building, located on Washington Street, was constructed in 1825 and has since become a focal point for various town activities.
“We see ourselves as being here to serve the whole of the community, and that very often people who don’t have another church or faith community will come to us at pivotal moments in their lives for weddings, funerals or crises,” said the Rev. Lindsay Popperson, associate minister of the Old North Church.
She added, “We really pride ourselves on being that church, and I see the steeple as symbolizing that presence in the community.”
The amount raised, Sands said, underscores the congregation’s commitment. Betsey Halbert, the Old North Church moderator, said the urgent need for the restoration is due to the tower’s cupola and steeple being severely damaged in a microburst that occurred three years ago.
The cost of these repairs alone is expected to be close to $400,000, with the remaining funds needed for other necessary maintenance and repair projects.
“One of the things we’re telling people is no gift is too small, right?” said Halbert. “People write to us all the time, ‘I can only give you $10, $20, $200,’ but those donations mean as much to us as a person who gave us $50,000.”
In fact, Halbert and Sands were over the moon about a $50,000 pledge that they had received following Sunday’s service. The project has, in some ways, been in the works for the past five to six years.
“In 2018, we had an engineering firm do a study of all of our buildings and grounds in order to prepare ourselves for the future,” said Sands. “We asked ourselves, ‘What do these lovely old buildings in the heart of the historic district need to keep them going?'”
Sands added, “They divided it up into three five-year segments, so the first segment is what we are planning to be doing next summer.”
To learn more about the capital campaign or to make a donation, visit https://bit.ly/41f9Mkj.
