Great Barrington — A project to restore the historic stone manse at the First Congregational Church on 251 Main St. is continuing forward. According to church member and project coordinator Charles Hamilton, the project to restore the manse started back in mid-April.
The manse is part of the 1.5-acre complex of the church sanctuary. The church was founded in 1743, while the stone structure building was completed in 1882. The manse was built in 1880 with locally quarried limestone and, in 1884, was given to the church, then known as the First Congregational Society of Great Barrington, by Mary Francis Sherwood Hopkins, the widow of railroad tycoon Mark Hopkins.
The manse, sanctuary, and carriage house of the church building were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in August 1992.
Hamilton said that the manse previously served as the residence for the church’s minister and their family. “There was an effort that started in 2017 to begin the work, but that was interrupted by the retirement of our longest-serving pastor who served our church for 30 years,” Hamilton said. “The project was postponed for another two years until, in 2019, we hired a new minister who came to the church with her husband. She had been here about three months when one of the sections of the manse’s wall collapsed.”
The project’s first phase involves restoring two sides of the building’s stonework and facades, including the sides of the building facing Main Street and the Mason Public Library. The second phase of the project involves restoring the remaining two sides of the building, along with the repair of stonework, facades, and crack sealing.
According to Hamilton, the total cost of the project was originally estimated at $580,000. “But in a couple of situations, construction workers got into the stonework up on top of the building and they found that the beams that were supporting the stone walls rotted,” Hamilton said. “That requires extra detail because it costs more. So the total estimate for the project may be around $635,000.”
Back in January, the town’s Community Preservation Committee approved a $230,000 grant to the church for the project. The church has also received a $50,000 grant from the state’s Preservation Projects Fund.
Hamilton said that donations were given to the church to raise additional funds, in addition to a loan from Lee Bank to bolster the cash flow of the project.
He could not give an estimate for when the project would be completed.
Work on the project is being conducted by Allegrone Construction of Lenox.
