Saving Grace Episcopal Church

Located at 308 West 2nd Street in Defiance, Ohio, Grace Episcopal Church’s foundations were shaken when crews began blasting nearby to establish the foundations for the Fort Winchester Bridge over the Maumee River. These blasts caused great damage to the pilasters on the east side of the church. Deterioration and cracking of the plaster around the pilasters and walls was an early sign of structural issues. In the 1930’s stabilization efforts were made, but by the 1980’s the situation had become worse. In the early 1980’s W.R. Meyers Co and Lenhart, Kreps and Lever Structural Engineering were called in by the building committee chair of GEC, Charlie Farr, a knowledgeable and committed church member who led the efforts to keep the building intact. W.R. Meyers Company studied the church and did some cable tensioning and benchmarking to understand the changes in the building. At that time we excavated 3 of the pilaster bases and installed large concrete stabilizing pads on the exterior of the church. 

Around 2010 damage and structural shifts once again became evident and pressing, with the large rafters inside beginning to delaminate. Our structural engineering partner, Phil Whaley from Pogemeyer Design group was brought on to help create a plan to stabilize the structure while staying within the church’s budget. The congregation remained extremely committed to keeping the church alive. The structural issues threatened the church to the point that the building was closed for a few years. 

The plan was extremely ambitious. An engineering study of the church floor’s strength gave us the ok to safely use interior lifts and scaffolding on the church floor. Holes were cut in the roof to allow steel beams to be brought into place in the structure by crane. The steel beams were laminated to existing beams to strengthen the structure. Once completed Andrew Carnahan headed up the effort to create aesthetic solutions to hide the structural reinforcements. With wood and plaster the team creatively disguised the changes in order to maintain the look and feel of the space. 

Four years later, in 2018, the structure was put through a thorough investigative study. A report issued by Pogemeyer Design Group showed that all structural improvements were stable and performing as planned. We’re proud to have helped give Grace Episcopal Church and it congregation a future for many generations to come.