Dean Douglas McCaleb is overseeing the major renovations being done to Trinity Cathedral, at 15th Street and South Bayshore Drive, on Wednesday, March 14, 2012. They are removing the stained glass windows and redoing the floors and alter area.
Trinity Cathedral, whose roots date to 1896, the year the city of Miami was founded, is getting a major touchup.
A $7 million renovation project, which should be completed by the summer of 2013, involves restoring its signature organ and delicate stained glass windows and bringing the cathedral’s electrical and structural components up to code — a major undertaking for a building completed in 1925.
The renovation, like many home-repair projects, uncovered something a bit unusual: The marble floor around the altar was held up by concrete, plaster of Paris and straw.
“We were pretty much astounded,’’ said The Very Rev. Douglas Wm McCaleb, who is overseeing the project.
Trinity Church has a pedigreed lineage. It is the oldest church in Miami’s original boundaries. It was founded in June 1896, a month before the city was incorporated on July 28, 1896. Miami founder Julia Tuttle donated the land on which the first wooden church sat — on the corner of Northeast Second Avenue and Second Street. (Its nickname was “The Church of the Holy Cheescloth,’’ quips McCaleb, noting cheesecloth covered the openings in the walls, as there were no windows.)
In 1911, a second Trinity Church was built on the site, made of concrete instead of wood.
~ Forward ~
