The Spires of St. Anne's

As reported in the Republican-American on May 2, the iconic spires of St. Anne's Church will be removed by All Saints Parish this summer. The job will cost the parish an estimated $881,255. The plan is to remove the Vermont blue marble blocks carefully, so that they can be used to someday restore the spires if enough money can be raised. The dome of the church is also in need of repairs; parishioners have told me there is water coming in through the dome windows.

The twin spires of St. Anne in 2006

This is not the first time that stonework has fallen from the building. Major repairs were done in the 1980s and the 2000s, but the problems have continued.

I have, frankly, had trouble tracing all of the repairs done to the towers, as very little information is available, and what I can find seems contradictory in places. A newspaper article in 2004 stated that $329,000 had just been spent to repair the towers and dome, but in 2006 there was a chunk of stonework missing from the west tower. Another newspaper article, from 2006, stated that the parish had raised nearly $2 million for repairs to the building. When I curated an exhibit about Waterbury architecture in 2009, repairs to the spires and dome had just wrapped up the previous year, but in 2011, the parish was once again talking about raising money to repair the spires.



A History of Problems

In 1979, the St. Anne's parish launched a campaign to raise $200,000 for the repair of the twin spires after a stone fell from the east spire and shattered on the sidewalk. An engineer determined that the steeples needed new mortar and waterproofing, as well as repairs to the gutters, slate roof, dome, and exterior woodwork (Peter Coy, "Parish Out to Save Ailing Steeples," Waterbury Republican, 28 June 1979). Use of the church continued without interruption.

Additional repairs were needed for windows, which had begun to buckle and loosen. The parish's Restoration Committee eventually raised a total of about $350,000 for the all of the repair work needed. The building-wide repair work was completed in December 1982, when Rev. Aurele Perreault reported that "leaks in the dome, caulking and painting of windows, the vestibule, protective glass on the outside of stained glass windows, etc." were finished.

Installation of steel braces inside the steeples was discussed as a possibility, depending on what the final structural engineering report found (Coy, 28 June 1979). Instead of steel braces, it appears that an internal layer of fiberglass was installed (Michael Puffer, "Lack of Maintenance and Ill-Advised Restoration Pushes St. Anne Steeples to Ruin," Republican-American, 5 May 2019). Architectural applications of fiberglass include use as a structural shell, providing lightweight rigidity. The fiberglass at St. Anne's may have been installed as an alternative to steel braces. Unfortunately, the fiberglass appears to have added to the problems by holding in moisture that would have otherwise evaporated.

In 1984, the parish discussed adding a coating of waterproofing to the spires every five years (Robert R. Bisaillon, Saint Anne Parish and Its People, 1986). It may have been a recommendation from the firm that installed the fiberglass in the spires. The parish's Centennial Fund plan from 1986 placed waterproofing as one of its top priorities. I do not know whether or not regular waterproofing was ever done. I suspect that it was not.

At one point, members of the parish's restoration committee considered suing the State of Connecticut to pay for the repair work, expressing concern that the steeples had been weakened during the construction of I-84 in the 1960s, when heavy trucks regularly drove past the building and dynamiting happened nearby. The major cause of the damage was actually attributed to the poor quality of the mortar, which was not waterproof, as well as seasonal damage caused by ice expanding in cracks (Coy, 28 June 1979).

Despite the work that was done during the 1980s, the problems persisted. By 2006, more stones were falling off the building.

Exposed bricks on the west tower of St. Anne's in 2006

The Friends of St. Anne, an independent nonprofit organization, was formed in 2004 by Rob Bouchard, Fern Verriker, Bob Dorr, and Ralph Monti with the goal of raising money to restore the church. Their main focus was the restoration of the interior murals, as the parish had apparently just spent $329,000 to repair the spires and dome, which presumably had people thinking that those parts of building's structure did not need further attention (Tracey O'Shaughnessy, "Group Organizes to Save Church," Republican-American, 20 November 2004).

Fern Verriker, who was not a member of St. Anne's parish but loved the building's art and architecture, described it in the Republican-American in 2004 as "our pride and joy." She also said, "We're never, never going to build another building like that. Why can't we try to keep it alive?" Regarding the significance of the twin spires, Verriker said, "I think all of the people in Waterbury should fall on their knees if one of those towers came crumbling down."

In 2006, the Republican-American reported that the parish had raised nearly $2 million through a capital campaign for repair, restoration, and landscaping at St. Anne's ("The Steeple Towers of The Shrine of St. Anne," Republican-American, 11 August 2006).

A round of exterior restoration work was completed in 2008, with repair work done to the masonry and the dome. During this project, at least one of the original copper fleur-de-lys finials from the dome was replaced by a modern copy.

Dome of St. Anne's showing water damage, c. 2006

In 2011, the parish again had plans to repair the spires, estimating the job would cost $300,000 in parts and labor. The repair plan would envelop the spires in scaffolding. (Tracey O'Shaughnessy, "St. Anne's Marks 125th Anniversary," Republican-American, 22 April 2011). I do not know what efforts the parish or the archdiocese made to raise the funds needed at this time. Eight years later, with no sign of repair work having been done, the spires have deteriorated to the point that they must be dismantled.

 

The spires and dome of St. Anne's in 2011

Interior Renovation

The parish has spent thousands over the years to restore the interior of St. Anne's, hiring Canning Liturgical Arts to restore the murals in the sanctuary in 2009, at a cost of $250,000. At the time, it was estimated that another $750,000 would be needed to finish the interior restoration work (Tracey O'Shaughnessy, "Reglorified," Republican-American, 20 June 2010). The work that's been done is gorgeous, and well worth every penny spent, but if the roof isn't sound, the interior at risk.

Restored murals at behind the altar St. Anne's
Photo by Canning Liturgical Arts

Interior view of dome
Photo from a wedding announcement website

The first accomplishment of the Friends of St. Anne was to raise $23,000 for the crumbling choir loft, which had been closed by the city due to safety concerns. The group exceeded their fundraising goal, bringing in a total of $70,000. With additional funds from St. Anne's, the choir loft was repaired and the apse and two small vestibules were restored by Canning Liturgical Arts (Mike Patrick, "City Beat," Republican-American, 31 August 2016).

Interior view of St. Anne's
Photo from a wedding announcement website

General History of St. Anne's

Unless otherwise noted, the information below comes from Robert Bisaillon's book, Saint Anne Parish and Its People, published in 1986.

A point of spelling: throughout much of its history, the parish spelled its name Sainte-Anne in French and Saint Ann in English. The spelling, regardless of language, officially became St. Anne in 1981.

The parish was organized in April 1886 under the leadership of Rev. Joseph William Fones, Pastor of St. John's Church in Watertown. Although Fones was not French, he had studied at Montreal, where he became fluent in the language. The first mass of Waterbury's new French-speaking parish was held on May 2, 1886 in the former Universalist Chapel on Grand Street. The congregation included immigrants from Canada as well as some from Alsace-Lorraine, France.

The first building used by St. Anne's Parish
Published in Anderson's History of Waterbury, Volume III, 1896

The Corporation of St. Anne's Church purchased its first plot of land from the estate of Ansel Charles Porter at the corner of South Main and Clay Streets on April 20, 1887. Another purchase in 1888 added a house for the parish rectory at the corner of Dover and South Main Streets.

The parish acquired a statue of its patron, St. Anne, on November 2, 1887. The life-size statue, edged with gold, would eventually be placed at the right side-altar of the current church.

A relatively small wood church was built on Dover Street in 1889, designed by local architect Joseph A. Jackson. Construction took four months, with the first marriage performed before the work was completed.

The original St. Anne's Church on Dover Street
Published in Anderson's History of Waterbury, Volume III, 1896

The parish's first school, with eight rooms for the 400 or so students, was built on Dover Street in 1895. It was joined by a new rectory building the same year. Both the school and rectory were constructed of red brick. The rectory was designed by Louis G. Destremps of Fall River, MA.

St. Anne's parish of Waterbury had close ties to St. Anne's of Fall River, Massachusetts. Construction of the Fall River church was overseen by Louis G. Destremps, who was a member of the French-Canadian immigrant community. St. Anne's of Fall River was shuttered in 2018 due to decreasing attendance and an estimated $13 million in needed repair costs. 

The first parochial school for St. Anne's parish in Waterbury
From Faith in Action, Congrégation de Notre-Dame Archives, Montreal

Rectory building on South Main StreetHistoric American Buildings Survey (HABS), Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

In 1911, the parish acquired two properties on East Clay Street to use as a convent, combing two neighboring houses into a single building and adding a chapel for the Daughters of the Holy Ghost, eleven nuns who taught at the parish school.

Construction of the present-day St. Anne's church began in 1906, with parishioners voting in favor of a granite exterior. The architect for the church was a Boston firm, Chickering and O'Connell, and the contractor was Granite Construction Company of Fall River, MA (Engineering News, Supplement, 29 June 1905, p. 245). During the ceremony marking the beginning of construction, the sermon was delivered in French by Rev. A. R. Grolleau of the Fall River St. Anne's parish (Pape's History of Waterbury, Volume I, p. 127).

Building the church would take decades. By 1910, the basement was completed and services began to be held in that location. The Dover Street chapel was converted into a school.

Services were held in the basement for years while the parish worked to raise enough funds the rest of the structure. Plans were put on hold during World War I, but a fundraising campaign launched in 1919 quickly raised enough money to complete the construction. The total cost for the construction of St. Anne's was about $278,000.

St. Anne's during construction
Photo published in Robert Bisaillon's book, Saint Anne Parish and Its People, 1986

St. Anne's during construction

The church was dedicated in 1922, after which additional funds were raised for stained glass windows.

The Celtic crosses surmounting the spires and dome, often associated with Ireland, are also a traditional design in western France, especially in Brittany and Normandy. Its use in France dates back to the 15th century.
  

Postcard view of St. Anne's, 1920s

A new school was built in 1956 by the Waterbury Construction Company. Funding for the $425,000 project was provided by parishioners. Construction of a new convent followed and was completed in 1959.

In 1965, St. Anne's began offering services in English and French. In 1969, the average attendance at mass was 2,400 people out of a total of 6,009 parishioners, with about 600 communions every Sunday. By 1985, attendance had dropped to about 800 people.

Two fires damaged the interior during the 1970s, leading to the beautiful murals being painted over. On Ash Wednesday of 1971, a fire set by an arsonist destroyed the sacristy and filled the main section of the church with smoke. Two firefighters were injured, one suffering smoke inhalation and the other a burn on his hand. Firefighters smashed open several stained glass windows to release the smoke and hacked out a ventilation hole in the roof.

The second fire, also started deliberately, destroyed the sacristy once more on January 29, 1978. The arsonist also used black spray paint to leave a crude message on the altar. The church's insurance company paid out $152,286 for losses from the fire.

The church suffered further damage in 1978 from vandals throwing rocks at the windows. Parishioners complained of being harassed outside the church, of "youngsters jumping from car to car," and of returning to their cars to find the contents and even the tires and batteries stolen.

View from South Main Street, 2009

The parish celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1986 with a gala, publishing a comprehensive history, and launching a Centennial Fund campaign which prioritized repair and maintenance of the building exterior.


Recent History

St. Anne's parochial school closed during the 1990s. The City of Waterbury began leasing the school and parking lot for its Continuing Education program. 

The parish continued to shrink, with fewer and fewer people attending the French-language services. The last mass in French was held in September 2005.


Rev. Michael F. X. Hinkley took on the leadership of St. Anne's in 2005, launching an aggressive campaign to revitalize the parish and build connections to the surrounding Hispanic community. Attendance increased from fewer than 100 to about 600 in 2006.

Saint Anne's became a Shrine for Mothers in 2005, displaying a relic of St. Anne and a relic of the cross.

In 2007, the Loyola Development Corp. was launched by Rev. Hinkley and St. Anne's parish to develop affordable housing on South Main and East Liberty Streets.

On June 29, 2017, St. Anne's was renamed All Saints/Todos los Santos as part of a merger with four other parishes, but it is still known by most people in Waterbury as St. Anne's.

After a stone fell from the tower in December 2018, the building was closed to the public. According to an article in the Republican-American, the towers are not in danger of immediate collapse (Michael Puffer, "Lack of Maintenance and Ill-Advised Restoration Pushes St. Anne Steeples to Ruin," Republican-American, 5 May 2019). Despite the protective scaffolding, the building remains closed, and plans to dismantle the towers are moving forward rapidly.

Although the loss of the spires will be devastating, it is worth reading the following from Robert Bisaillon's 1986 history of St. Anne's parish:

The spires of St. Anne resemble those of St. Patrick's Cathedral and St. Anne de Beaupre in miniature.... Without the spires, the towers resemble those of Notre-Dame de Paris.