Historic Tipton church bowing under years of water damage

TIPTON, Ind. (AP) - St. John the Baptist church Rev. Christopher Shocklee has weathered some harrowing storms since he was appointed to the Catholic parish a year and a half ago.

Last April, the church announced it was closing its school, which had been in session for nearly 130 years.

That school building across the street from the church sat largely unused for six months, although there has been some upkeep since it offers a small preschool class.

It turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

In November, a visible crack in a corner buttress on the south face of the church became a cause for concern. Masons began to investigate the area, attempting to dig back to where the brick was solid.

They discovered improperly installed flashings had been letting water in for the past 30 years. As they dug deeper, they found no mortar, just brick on brick. Once they reached the corner of the truss, they found they could put a screwdriver all the way through because it had rotted away.

The mason called an engineer to come and look at the damage right away. After an inspection, the engineer notified Shocklee the church needed to stop using the building immediately.

"You just have to laugh at a certain point, because you just go crazy," Shocklee told the Kokomo Tribune (http://bit.ly/18WFBEb ). "The worst things people think of when they think of assignments is having to close a school or possibly having to tear down a historical church. We got both in two years."

Because the church vacated under its own volition, the building has not been condemned. That means administration can still enter the building to grab items as needed and perform evaluations, mainly aimed at determining if the building is worth repairing. But, until further notice, mass will be held in the school gymnasium about 150 paces from the front doors of the church.

The beautiful, Gothic-style church on Mill Street was built in 1891. A shamrock façade - cement shaped like stone - was added between 1914 and 1920 over the original brick. A fire 10 years ago burned the church's steeple off, so that part of the building is fairly new. There's a possibility that fire added to the church's structural problems.

Some of the shamrock has started to weaken and fall off, and other parts of the façade have been removed to reveal the extent of the damage.

More recently, there was an elastomeric coating put over the shamrock, which serves as a barrier over to keep water out.

"It's like a raincoat," Shocklee explained. "If you put a raincoat on, it keeps the water out. But, if you get a hole in that raincoat, it just keeps the water in. That's what's been happening. This façade is keeping the water in, and it doesn't have any place to go. It's pushing it farther in."

After a century's worth of water damage, the roof is visibly dipping in places, and the chimney is leaning in. The back corner of the building is leaning outward, and the back wall of the attic is leaning in seven inches.

Inside the church, cracks from water damage are visible on the ceiling. Watermarked spots dot the walls. Somehow, water is seeping through all the walls, possibly from the shamrock and coinciding elastomeric coating.

As of right now, engineers have suggested erecting four steel towers in the sanctuary to take the weight off the ends of the trusses, cut off the ends and build new ones. The towers alone could cost $150,000, but that's just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the repairs the church needs to get back into working order.

The repairs to the truss-related problems could be $500,000 alone.

"And, that doesn't handle the water penetration issues that are still happening," Shocklee said. "The water penetration means we have to handle the façade. The façade, peeling it off, is going to be $300,000. That includes some tuck-pointing. But, once the façade is peeled off, we might find that we have to rebrick the outer layer of the church, and that may be another $1 million. The cost just keeps going up."

The stained glass windows, some of which are as old as the church, need to be releaded. There is so much stained glass in the church that repairs to the windows could cost an additional $450,000.

The cracking plaster on the inside means it will have to be redone as well. That could cost anywhere between $150,000 and $450,000.

"You're literally in the neighborhood of 75 to 125 percent of the cost of a new building if you choose to repair this one," Shocklee said. "Repairs to bring the old building up to par could cost well over $3 million. Part of it is that it's not just one issue. It's the culmination of multiple issues together that is making it a harder decision."

Further, all of those renovations would force the church to bring its facility up to current Americans with Disabilities Act codes, which would mean building a new handicap access ramp and remodeling the restroom. Currently, there's only one restroom in the church, due mainly to the fact the original building did not have indoor plumbing.

It appears to make more sense to build a new church, and Shocklee agreed that seems to be the direction the parish is leaning.

"It's really hard to justify the amount of expenses this is going to take to repair," Shocklee said. "I'm saying to the people, 'It really is up to you.' If they think it's really worth it to put that much money into the old building, well, it's their money."

Schocklee's dialogue with the majority of his parishioners has revealed most of them would love to keep their old church, but don't want to put too much into the building with questions remaining about what's going to happen to it 10 years down the road.

Parishioners have expressed a desire to keep elements of the old church, items such as the glass, the old pews, the high altar, the side altars and the altar rail, and although they don't particularly like it, they're comfortable with the idea of moving into a new church as long as it looks as much like the old one as possible.

"I don't know what we're going to do at this point," Shocklee said. "I just started a survey among parishioners to try to find out what their feelings are. It'll give them a chance to tell me where they stand with it, how much it's worth to put into an old building, and what they would want in a new building that we don't have."

To give the gym a more sanctuary-like feel, the side altar and altar rail have been moved there, as well as a sizeable picture of the altar from the church that hangs on the back of the stage. The church had to hold Mass in the gym 10 years ago when the fire burned off the steeple, so acoustic panels already were installed across the walls and ceiling.

"Having this gym available to us has been a great benefit. For a gym church, this is as nice as you can get in some ways," Shocklee said. "The people understand we're doing what we can with what we've got. It's nice to have some of the elements."

Aside from renovating the church, the other options include building a new church on the site of the current one, once demolition is complete. Other ideas include building a new church behind the school building that would face North Street and another where it would face Oak Street.

Funding for the project will come primarily from parishioners. It will be a $3 million to $4 million project either way, and diocesan policy states the parish will have to have 50 percent of that money in hand before anything moves forward. Any loans would be drawn in the name of the diocese, but the parish would have to show it has a reasonable ability to pay the money back.

So, it appears regardless of the final decision, which Shocklee hopes to have by Easter, Mass for St. John the Baptist Church will be held in the gym for the foreseeable future.

"Until we know what direction we're going, it's really hard to do much of anything," Shocklee said. "But, it's nice to know we're viewed as not just the Catholic Church in Tipton, but as the Catholic Church that's part of Tipton. The mayor (Don Havens) says all of Tipton has a vested interest in us. . It's nice to know there's support out there. I'm part of the Rotary Club, and some of the members there have said that once we start fundraising for whatever we're doing, it matters to all of them, not just the parishioners.

"It's nice to know there's support out there," he added. "Some of the priests of the surrounding parishes have said, 'When you know what's going on, let us know and we can see how we can help.'"

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Information from: Kokomo Tribune, http://www.ktonline.com