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Cross tops renovation to town's oldest Catholic church By Dominik Kurek OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF As a cross was lifted to the top of the steeple of St. Andrew Catholic Church, an extensive, three-year renovation project to the 170-year-old building came to an end. The renovation cost $1.5 million, which paid for the rebuild of the church, repairs to the steeple and the construction of an addition. St. Andrew is the oldest Catholic church in Oakville, having served the community since 1840. "It all worked out pretty well," said Pastor Peter Coughlin, as he watched a crane lift the finial (cross) to the top of the steeple on Wednesday, Feb. 15. "People are really happy with the look of the church and the quality of work that was done. Even the historical society was amazingly pleased because of the quality of work that was being done here." Coughlin said there were challenges for the church congregation during the renovation process, especially during the construction of the addition. However, the church was always available for Sunday mass service. Some funeral services, which took place midweek, had to be conducted elsewhere. The pastor himself was impressed with the addition, which was built to make room for a larger sacristy/quiet room, two bathrooms with accessibility, a confession room, large entrance foyer and porch, along with a basement for storage. "We did the best we could to do the addition so that it would mirror the original part of the church," Coughlin said. "One of the most amazing things is that people could not believe how well matched it was. You could not tell where the old left off and where the new began." Coughlin praised the work of all those involved in the building process. Among the people heavily involved ERIC RIEHL / OAKVILLE BEAVER was Frank Collins, a member of the congregation and building chair, who Finishing touch: The new cross at St. Andrew's oversaw the entire project. Church is lifted by a crane onto the top of the building. This "This was a huge task because every marked the end of a $1.5 million, three-year renovation of time I opened up one piece of wall, I the church. The cross itself is worth $40,000. ended up with four or five problems within it," Collins said. "In other words, we had rotted lumber, all vents were THIS WINTER LEAVE THE COLD crawling with spiders, you just opened something and it was just brutal. There were cracks everywhere." The walls on the outside, he said, were falling down as a result of a rotted foundation. The walls were crooked and corners were bent. Much of the structural beams of the building had to be removed and were replaced with much more durable material. There are now brand new windows and casings, and there were extensive repairs to the ceiling and walls. The windows are new, but the stained glass is not, each is roughly 75 years old. The new doors and lights are custom made to the church's historical design. In other words, the building itself is brand new, however, it's built to look like it's the mid-1800s. The Oakville Historical Society was helpful in achieving this `new-old' build. "(The historical society) wanted to make sure that we stayed within the boundaries of the old construction," Collins said. "We had to replace everything in this building, which was built in 1840, with new materials." There were some improvements made, however. The building now has See Cross page 18 17 · Friday, February 17, 2012 OAKVILLE BEAVER · www.insideHALTON.com WARM UP TO A THE OUTSIDE AND EXPERIENCE MODERN FIREPLACE WARMTH OF A MODERN FIREPLACE. Spray anything in Cloud White and get "Building on the Brightest Ideas Around Glass" 10% OFF February only 905.849.0266 "MASONRY & FIREPLACE DESIGN SPECIALISTS" www.cobblestonembers.ca ACROSS FROM RONA LANSING Showroom open 10:00-5:00 Monday-Saturday #1A-1254 Plains Rd. East, Burlington 406 SPEERS RD., OAKVILLE 905-337-2066 905-631-REDO (7336) www.paintitlikenew.com CLIP AND SAVE European Engineering Combined With Traditional Workmanship CLIP AND SAVE AS SEEN ON CITYLINE & CHCH TV