It was back in the early spring of 1937 on a clear but rather cold day and I was in Ralph Purington's plumbing shop. It was located on Elm Street where the antique shop is today.

The telephone rang and the person on the other end was Ralph Whipple, principal of the High School on Green Street. He had called Mr. Purington because he was at that time chairman of the board of trustees of the Congregational Church.

He wanted Ralph Purington to come over to the school because from that location it appeared that the North Church steeple had a distinct list. Mr. Purington asked me to come along and we both went over to the school where Mr. Whipple was waiting on the front steps.

He held up a pointer straight up and told us to line up the steeple with the pointer, which we did. Sure enough, the steeple appeared to tilt northward.

A special meeting of the trustees was called and it was decided to contact a structural engineer. B. F. Goodwin of Marblehead, who was a nationally known authority on buildings, was called in. After examining the base and steeple itself, it was decided that the steeple was in a serious condition and something had to be done right away.

At the time a Mr. Elliott of Portland, Maine, who was a steeplejack, was working on a steeple in Newburyport. Contact was made with him and he gave a very reasonable estimate of the cost and was given the contract.

The floor of the vestibule was taken up and excavation was done and jacks were placed under the wooden foundation. The steeple was actually lifted and oak timber and steel rods with turnbuckle were installed in the belfry. The steeple was reinforced Mr. Elliott had done an excellent job, so much so the the church voted him an extra thousand dollar because he had lost money on the original contract

The steeple was now in a safe condition.

It seemed strange that New England had no experienced a hurricane in the last hundred year and yet the next year, 1938, a hurricane struck Thanks to Mr. Whipple, who had discovered the list in the steeple, the structure survived.

Two years later Mr. Elliott, while working on steeple in Maine, fell and was instantly killed.

-HAROLD D. BOWEN