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Vol. 2 - No. 29Wednesday, August 28, 2985Spire to sparkleBy KAREN GARDNER News-Post StaffTrimly Chapel’s steeple and clock face is Frederick’s oldest of the “clustered spires,” and with its fresh coat of paint and new gold-leafed clock decorations, it may he the most glamorous.“It will maintain its traditional appearance,” the Rev. Frederick A. Wenner, pastor of the Evangelical Reformed Church, said. “It’ll be something we can be proud of instead of an eyesore.”Trinity Chapel, at 10 W. Church St., belongs to the Evangelical Reformed Church.Wenner said more than 10 years have passed since the clock and steeple lastgot a facelift. The much-needed cosmetics began in late April, he said.Inside the three-foot-thiek walls, Dan Quinn and his assistants have spent four months threading through narrow stairways and between huge iron bells to strengthen the 232-year-old landmark.At 180 feet, the white structure stretches dizzyingly into the Frederick skyline, but it’s still 40 feet shorter than the city's tallest steeple at St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church.Quins and his assistants — Norris Gearhart, Ron Leecy and. Peter Mosher — are trained steeplejacks, an art Quinn says can’t be learned. “It’s a gift you’re born with,” he said from the top platform of the steeple.“You’re either comfortable being up here or you’re not,” Quinn said, eyeing the flimsy-looking but extremely tough Bosun’s chairs suspended from the steeple.On those chairs, Quinn and Ms menpainted the tower and the clock faces and applied the freshly gilded gold clock hands.But a steeplejack’s work doesn’t just consist of hanging from the rope and pulley Bosun’s chairs, while climbing around the tower. It takes knowledge of carpentry, masonry, sheet metal work and gold leafing.Much of the workers’ time was spent on inside structural tasks.It’s the gold leaf work that Quinn points to most proudly. He began the specialty when he was 6, learning it from Ms father. When he was 16, 16 years ago, he began climbing up steeples.Quinn said he’s the only steeplejack who can boast that he has fixed all eight of Frederick’s clustered spires.The gilding Quinn and Ms workers applied to Trinity’s clock hands and face is 23 carat gold. At three-millionths of an inch, the flecks of metal could easily be brushed away like specks of dust.(Continued on page A-3)Hands in timeClock watchers in downtown Frederick have four more clocks to watch now that the clocks of Trinity Chapel of the Evangelical Reformed Church have been restored Installing one of the new gilded clockfaces on Frederick’s oldest clustered spire are Norris Gearhart (left) of Frederick and Ron Leecy of Cumberland. Both men work for Skyline Engineers of Maryland, specialists in historic restoration. (Photo by Sam Yu)
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Frederick News Post Leader
Frederick, Maryland, US
Wed, Aug 28, 1985
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USA 26 Mar 2022
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