St Patrick's Church, Waimate. Photo by Sally Rae.
The $600,000, nine-year restoration of Waimate's St
Patrick's Church is nearing completion, with the final stage to
start on Monday.
That will complete the project for the church's centennial
celebrations.
The church was officially opened on October 24, 1909.
The church, designed by F. W. Petre, is one of Waimate's
prominent historic buildings, standing at the northern
entrance to the town's main street.
The restoration started in 2000, with a conservation report
on the church, followed by fundraising starting in 2004 for
the project.
Now, it is entering its final phase, with the interior
restoration expected to cost about $200,000.
Project chairman John Foley said that once completed, the
overall project would have carried out about 50 years of
maintenance and would last another 50 years.
Scaffolding will go up in the church from Monday, and the
interior stage is expected to take about six weeks.
The colour scheme for the interior will be similar to that in
the newly restored Opera House in Oamaru, which the project
committee visited.
"We were very taken with that [colour scheme]," Mr Foley
said.
The work includes restoration of the coffered ceilings and
plaster, reinstating some of the interior features and
removing the 1970s mahogany joinery.
New lighting will enhance the ceilings, highlight special
areas or objects and cater for multiple uses.
One such feature is marble altar rails, which were salvaged
from among the church's piles.
They have been cleaned, uncovering Roman lettering and
numerals.
The restoration committee has all the funding for the stage,
except about $40,000 which will come from the parish.
The rails came from quarries in Carrara, Italy's marble
mountain.
They were made to Petre's design, boxed, shipped to New
Zealand and reassembled in the church's sanctuary in 1909.
The first two stages of the project, costing about $330,000
and paid for, have been completed.
They included bracing and strengthening the church, a new
roof, restoration, cleaning and repairing the exterior.
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