Crew begins removing damaged steeple

Nov. 20--The cross came down first.

Workers wrapped the weathered cross that topped the steeple of Concordia Evangelical Lutheran Church in yellow rope before lifting it into the sky with a crane and lowering it to the ground just before 6 p.m.

Two massive cranes were stationed at the church on West Belmont Avenue in the Avondale neighborhood, ready to remove the church's towering, 120-year-old steeple after it was severely damaged in Sunday's storm. A number of delays pushed the work into late Tuesday night.

A handful of people, including Ald. Deb Mell, 33rd, stood across Belmont and in a nearby alley to watch as the cross, illuminated by floodlights, was sawed off and eased to the ground.

"When it finally came out and they were moving it through the sky, I (thought), this is the beginning of the end," said the church's pastor, the Rev. Martin Doering. "But on the other hand they had a bunch of expensive equipment hoisting a cross across the sky to be seen by hundreds of people. The way the crew treated it when they got it to the ground was with a lot of respect."

The high winds Sunday night damaged crucial beams supporting the steeple, leaving only two intact. On Monday, city engineers decided the steeple was too dangerous to fix, said Mimi Simon, a Building Department spokeswoman.

The damaged steeple led officials to close Belmont between California and Rockwell avenues late Sunday night, affecting bus routes, businesses and residents. Workers expected the steeple to be entirely removed sometime Tuesday night.

Doering said the church hopes the steeple can eventually be repaired and reclaim its spot atop the church. He said the church tentatively plans to store the steeple in its parking lot -- if the structure is still in one place after being taken down.

The cost of removing the steeple could be more than $100,000 -- a figure Doering's 30-member congregation cannot bear alone.

"It's an opportunity to trust in God a lot," he said. "We're going to need to rely on the generosity of our members and of strangers."

The church is in debt and does not have insurance to offset the cost, Doering said. The congregation had to let it lapse last year when it could no longer afford the premium.

An emergency receiver -- CR Realty Advisors LLC -- was appointed at a court hearing Monday and will take on the initial cost of removing the steeple. The church could end up paying back CR Realty with a 24 percent interest rate each year, according to a rough estimate by the firm, said company representative Curt Bettiker.

"(It will) most likely be less. But we have to give the worst-case scenario," Bettiker said.

At its peak, the church had a congregation of 1,300 mostly German-speaking families, but today it has about 30 members. The Rev. Arnold zu Windisch-Graetz, who also was a prince of German lineage, served as pastor for 40 years after settling in Chicago in the late 1960s. Windisch-Graetz died at age 78 in 2007, serving as pastor until his death..

The church building, which features high ceilings and elaborate, teardrop columns, was designed by Walter Ahlschlager, a prominent 20th-century Chicago architect. Inside on Tuesday, there were no signs of damage.

In recent years, the Preservation Chicago group had been talking to officials at the church about pursuing historic landmark status. If they had, it would have been much harder for the city to condemn the steeple.

"Now everybody's upset we didn't pursue that further," Preservation Chicago President Ward Miller said. "This is an area of heavy development, and you wonder if there are other powers at play here," he said, adding that the cost of removing the steeple could put the church at risk of losing the building.

Mell lives a block away from the church and can see the steeple from her window.

"It's a beautiful landmark for Avondale. ... It's been here forever," Mell said. "You can see it from the 'L' stops, you can see it from the lake and everyone knows, yeah, that's Avondale."

ehirst@tribune.com

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