Photo courtesy of Frances Merton
If you’ve driven down Main Street in Centerville anytime in the last couple of weeks, chances are you’d have seen the clock on the steeple of the South Congregational Church dismantled, its hands and numbers removed, and some guys up there dangling by ropes. “Wow, they’re re-doing the clock,” I thought, in awe, when I first saw them up there. As I drove by, I saw their trailer, which reads, “ROBERT MORGAN CO., Steeple and Building Restoration.” Amazed by the idea of a company that specializes in steeple restoration, something I’d not given much thought to previously, I checked out their website, steeplekeeper.com.
I was fascinated to learn that Robert Morgan is a third-generation steeplejack — one who fixes steeples, which makes his son, one of the guys I saw on the steeple, a fourth-generation steeplejack. Robert Morgan Company is one of only a few in the country that do this kind of work. Fascinated by this alone, I clicked on Mr. Morgan’s biography and was further fascinated to learn that Robert Morgan, Senior, was an avid boat builder, and in the early ‘70s, built a 64-foot, double-masted Schooner, named “Old Glory,” in Thailand, and sailed his family around the world for three and a half years, when Mr. Morgan was just a kid. What an amazing way to have grown up. To add to the excitement even further, for me, I saw that Robert Morgan Company is based out of Littleton, New Hampshire, near where I used to have family and visit every summer when I was a kid. I just had to go talk to them.
It was that rainy Wednesday last week, and I found three steeplejacks – Mr. Morgan’s son, Jeremy, 30; Harry Tupick, 47; and Scott Doobie, 38; taking a break in the trailer, waiting for the rain and wind to stop so they could hoist back up the steeple. When I asked them about the project, they suggested I “talk to the boss,” and showed me to a shed in the back of the church, where I had the honor of meeting Mr. Morgan himself; he was gold-leafing the weathervane. That is, not just painting it gold, but leafing small sheets of actual gold, onto the weathervane. Standing there in the shed that rainy day, I was close-up, right next to the weathervane. “It lasts about 35 years,” Mr. Morgan told me of the gold leaf. “We’re repainting the hands and the three faces of the clock, on which the paint had been peeling. The Roman numerals will be painted with gold paint (not gold-leafed).” Of his company, he said, “we’re one of a small handful of such companies all over the US, of real steeplejacks, who use ropes.” These days, he said, most companies who do this kind of work use cranes.
Indeed, when I spoke with Mr. Dennis Smith, a member of the Building & Grounds Committee for the church and the leader of this project, he told me that he had spoken with some other companies about the job, but that they would have to bring in cranes, which would be slightly cluttering to Main Street.
About the actual clock in the steeple, Mr. Smith said, “It’s one of the few mechanical clocks on the Cape, the kind with levers and wheels. It’s a Howard Clock.” I found out that the clock company E. Howard & Co. out of Boston, was formed in 1858. Mr. Miller suggested I contact Centerville resident Howard Taubner (no relation to the Howard Clock Co.), for more information, Taubner being the “keeper of the clock.”
Have you ever wondered who the person might be that moves the gigantic clock hands ahead in the spring and back in the fall? That would be Howard Taubner.
A member of the Building & Grounds Committee for the church, Mr. Taubner further enlightened me on the workings of the clock. “This clock’s mechanism is from 1870, originally driven by weights that had to be cranked up each week. It was received in the spring of 1979 in Centerville, having come from West Roxbury, at which time it was electrified; that is, it now has an electric motor, which powers the gears. It runs on 1/125th of horsepower.”
“If you want to see what a Howard clock looks like in action,” he said, “go down to Christmas Tree Shops in Hyannis. You know that giant clock with the gears they have? That’s a Howard Clock. It’s operated by weights that are lifted electrically.”
I’ve been so excited just by seeing the guys up on the steeple doing the work that they do, and each person I’ve talked to about the project has been equally as excited. People have stopped and gotten out of their cars to snap photos of the guys on the steeple, they’ve inquired in the church about the project. It has been a wonderful thing to see the transformation before our eyes.
When the newly gold-leafed weathervane was finally hoisted up and placed once again on the top of the church spire, Mr. Smith told me, he found Mr. Morgan outside, looking up at his work of art. “He’s so excited,” Mr. Smith said, “and he talks about looking up and seeing that gold-leaf on the weathervane, and you can tell it just comes from the heart.”
For more information on Robert Morgan Company, please see steeplekeeper.com. When you do, be sure to send them an email and thank them for such doing such a beautiful job of restoring one of our Centerville icons.
Marina Davalos is a freelance writer and native Cape Codder who lives in Centerville with her dog, Hanita, and her cat, Elsa. She lived on Maui on and off for 15 years and has traveled the world. She can be reached at [email protected]
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