Construction began on the current church of St. John the Evangelist in 1833. At the time, it was the largest parish church in the U.S., and the first consecrated church in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. The Greek Revival building is a contributing property of Frederick’s Historic District, and the top of the 145-ft bell tower makes it the tallest building in Frederick.

WEI was hired to restore the bell tower, which included a stuccoed stone base, wooden belfry and upper tiers, cast iron column capitals and glass-paned clock, as well as copper dome and cross.  

WEI started the project by reinforcing the base of the tower with interior steel framing and repointing the fieldstone walls.  Steel components and mortar were carried up into the base by hand due to the tight spaces.  Once the tower was fully stabilized, scaffolding was built around the tower to access the full height of the structure.  This enabled the crew to use a hoist to lift and lower heavy materials.

With full access to the exterior, the entire tower was surveyed by a WEI conservator before starting work to help prioritize the project needs and document the conditions of the complicated historic molding and materials.  Carpenters carefully began removing and cataloguing the intricate compound trim on the exterior to assess the framing, much of which required replacement.  Many of the wooden column bases needed to be replicated as well.

The cast iron capitals were disassembled to evaluate the columns themselves.  In most cases, they were restored by cutting away the rotted sections and supplementing with dutchmen repairs in similar wood species to keep their physical properties consistent.  The capitals themselves were stripped of paint and chemically treated to remove most of the rust.  The sections were then primed with a rust converter to stabilize the surface before painting.  In some cases, the interior of the capital was reinforced with sheet metal before reattaching the leaves and scrolls with new steel fasteners.

Due to the state of the wood components and the difficulty to access the upper levels, most of the horizontal surfaces near the base of each tier were covered in stainless steel flashing to prolong the life of the structure and help it shed water more effectively.  After all stucco repairs, carpentry, sheet metal, and louvers were complete, each material received its own specialty primer, and the whole tower was painted in historic colors.

Final touches included replacing the broken glass in the clock and painting the face, inspecting the lightning protection, and repairing the metal dome and cross before coating it with a metallic gold paint.