By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
Repair and renovation work on St. Michael’s Cathedral is well underway, but extensive work remains to be done, contractor Pete Hagan said Wednesday at the weekly meeting of the Sitka Chamber of Commerce.
“We’re close to being halfway through,” Hagan told the group which had gathered in the church for the meeting. “I don’t know if there are any more surprises coming, but I would guess that there will be.”
Hagan, owner of KD Painting, started work on the cathedral as a repainting project, but expanded into basic repairs as those needs became known. In addition, he is assisting the Russian Orthodox congregation in fundraising for preserving the structure, which is a National Historic Landmark.
The original cathedral, built in 1847, burned to the ground in the 1966 fire that destroyed much of the center of downtown Sitka. The replica was built on the same site and the cathedral was reconsecrated in 1977.
The present wooden exterior is to replicate the original appearance of the church, but it has fireproof qualities from the steel frame and concrete slabs that replaced the original log substructure, Hagan said.
But fire, he added, is not the main threat to St. Michael’s at the moment.
“There’s water underneath everywhere,” he said. The present church has a basement, while the original cathedral was entirely above ground.
“If we get eight inches of rain, there’s water pressure, hydraulic pressure underneath that wants to find its way in,” Hagan said. “It’s not going to float the basement, but it’s going to find a way in.” And when there is a plus nine-foot tide, the problem gets even worse.
Contractor Pete Hagan gestures to the dome of St. Michael’s Orthodox Cathedral Wednesday afternoon during a special presentation he made to the Sitka Chamber of Commerce. Hagan has been making repairs to the National Landmark cathedral, including repairs to the copper dome roof, which had been damaged by previous workers accessing the roof using boom lifts. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
The basement of the cathedral has had so much flooding, Hagan joked, that “Brother Peter, now we call him Aquarius, because he’s moved a lot of water.”
Up on the roof, Hagan said, he discovered another problem. When the cathedral was rebuilt in the 1970s, wood fiber was used as roof insulation.
“I don’t know why that ended up on the roof,” he said. “So if you get holes or shingles blowing off you’re going to get water in there.”
In addition, Hagan found that “the valleys between the planes (of the roof)… were rotted about half way up. It looked like you took a torch and burned right along the shingles in some areas in all these valleys.”
He said the fire treatment used on the shingles had combined with the salt air and copper roofing to create an electrolysis effect, leading to a lot of damage and requiring major repairs.
Along with structural issues, there are financial constraints Hagan said, estimating that about $800,000 would be needed for the full list of repairs that have been identified.
“We are still in the midst of fundraising,” Hagan said.
Ana Dittmar, the project’s historic preservation specialist, told the Sentinel that a single family in Sitka has made an anonymous donation of $200,000.
Dittmar said that the next project would be the repair of the last quarter of the roof, at an estimated cost of $25,000.
She described the repair and restoration work as “ongoing, like a boat, it’s continuous routine maintenance all the time.”
Donations can be made at the Cathedral Shop on Lincoln Street, or by check sent to P.O. Box 697, Sitka.
