Steeple

Our Steeple

The Steeple Restoration Project


The “Raise the Steeple” committee is so delighted with our community’s support and wonderful, generous donations to our fundraising efforts including several challenge grants and gifts, all of which have been met. We want to let the community know where we stand and what lies ahead. We have raised over $575,000 in our campaign to put the steeple back where it belongs, on top of the Church of Christ Congregational in Norfolk. In addition to renovating the steeple, we plan to repair the clock face and chimes. Our original estimate for the repairs and refurbishment of the clock has doubled but thanks to you, we are in a good position to have that work completed.

Some of the monies have been spent bringing the steeple down to the ground (approximately $100,000) so that repairs could be made and about $35,000 on the engineering work so far. Soon our architectural and engineering plans will be finalized and we will be ready to send the project out to bid. Once we receive the quotes for the renovation work our future expenditures will become clear. Building costs are uncertain at this time but with your help we are confident that all of this work will be done.

Thank you from the Raise The Steeple Committee –

Hope Childs, Marie Civco, Rowland Denny, Betsy Gill, Jan Graham-Jones, Kate Johnson, Erick Olsen 

Donations to help restore the steeple may be made below.
If you would like to pledge financial support to this project,
please visit the Steeple Pledge page. Thank you!

Steeple History

In 1835, John Warner Barber rode into Norfolk on the Greenwoods Turnpike to sketch a view of the village for his book Connecticut Historical Collections. Barber described Norfolk as “a village uncommonly neat and beautiful.” As in many towns, the steepled church was an iconic part of the New England landscape.  The artist Thomas Cole described that landscape in his Essay on American Scenery: “from yonder dark mass of foliage the village spire beams like a star.”

Designed in 1813 by David Hoadley, a master builder of outstanding skill, the church soon garnered state-wide recognition. Hoadley’s elegant steeple rises from a square clock tower in two octagonal stages capped by balustrades and a tall spire. The graceful modulation of scale reflects a refined sense of proportion, an important and meaningful component of design when it was built. On its elevated site, the new church with its distinctive steeple was a commanding presence in Norfolk, a beacon of light, and placed the town on the architectural map.

Norfolk Historical Society: Watch the steeple being removed and placed on the ground.

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