Workers from Preservation Timber Framing and Bancroft Contracting remove the belfry Thursday from the top of the First Universalist Church in Norway.
NORWAY — A crane lifted the belfry Thursday from atop the Unitarian Universalist Church in Norway and placed it onto a truck.
The belfry is undergoing restoration and will be returned to its original proportions.
“The actual restoration will make the belfry closer to its original proportions, prior to the early 1900s, when the bell was replaced and some of the framing was changed,” according to Joan Beal of the Save the Belfry Committee.
The Rev. Fayre Stephenson, left, Joan Beal, Pat Shearman, Jan Cardoza, Sally Bradley and Dorothy Raymond watch Thursday as workers remove the belfry from the First Universalist Church in Norway.
The church on Main Street was constructed in 1829 and remodeled in 1865, according to information provided by Earl Shuttleworth to the National Register of Historic Places.
In 1901, a new bell was donated. In 1913, a rounded bell tower and weather vane replaced the original spire.
The church was built by Ezra Fluent Beal, an early Norway resident and contractor who was well-known in Maine during the early 1800s, according to information provided by Joan Beal.
Ezra Fluent Beal was a member of the Universalist church, a civic leader who served as the second president of Norway Savings Bank.
Karen Dean of Bridgton wears the “bell” pin she bought to help support the “Save the Belfry” campaign. Various colors of bells can be purchased with a donation to help raise money for the belfry restoration. “A little money is better than no money,” said historian Pat Shearman.
The church was designated by the National Park Service largely for its intact architecture of Italianate, Romanesque and Queen Anne design buildings. It was one of the few buildings that survived an 1894 fire that destroyed much of downtown.
The Rev. Cordelia Strandskov, right, and her mother, Nikki Strandskove, watch Thursday as workers build a brace out of timbers atop the First Universalist Church in Norway.
Joan and Ray Guerin of Norway watch Thursday as workers build a brace out of timbers atop the First Universalist Church in Norway.
Parishioners of the First Universalist Church in Norway watch Thursday as workers from Preservation Timber Framing and Bancroft Contracting remove the belfry from atop the church.
Timbers that need be repaired on the belfry tower are sent through an opening in the side of the church Thursday. The timbers could not be passed through the small passages that lead to the top of the church.
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