A new lift allows volunteers to better inspect the work that’s ahead of them restoring the Chocolate Church Arts Center in downtown Bath. Courtesy of Paula McKenney
The worse-for-wear steeple on the Chocolate Church Arts Center is getting a sorely needed fresh coat of paint.
Built in 1847 as a Third Parish Church, it has served Bath and the surrounding communities as a performing arts center since 1977.
Steve Kent, a member of the board and the building committee for the last year and a half, remembers the first time he set foot inside the Chocolate Church, when his theater professor at Bowdoin encouraged him to go work on the set for “A Streetcar Named Desire.”
“It was a fond memory,” Kent said. “I went on to do another set or two before I got wrapped up in my career.”
That career included 25 years at Bath Iron Works as a project engineer and experience in construction.
This past Sunday, he got an elevated view of the condition of the former church’s steeple, using a Genie lift to assess the steeple’s siding and the sturdiness of its connection to the sanctuary.
Peeling paint on the steeple of the Chocolate Church, which volunteers had previously not been able to access. Work will begin this winter scraping the siding to prepare for a fresh coat of paint to be applied next spring. Courtesy of Paula McKenney
“The church was built by shipbuilders and the framing all shows it,” he said during an interview this week. “It’s rugged.”
Kent said he was impressed that the cedar siding is in good shape, as are the pine boards beneath it — but he said many of the original nails are rusted out and there is water damage near the base of the walls.
Volunteers have been hard at work since the summer restoring the church one piece at a time. They painted one wall and removed water damage from the ADA-accessible side entrance, nicknamed the “Troll Door.” This winter, the upper reaches of the steeple will get scraped and prepped for paint with the help of Kent’s new lift, which is a big help for the Chocolate Church, as all the painting in the past three years has been done by volunteers on ladders.
Kent and the board have been working with engineering firm Structures North to come up with a plan to stabilize the steeple in 2024. The chief engineer there, Ed Moll Jr., is a Bath native. The board and Structures North estimate the cost of restoring the building completely could reach $1.5–$3 million.
“How long it takes really depends on how much energy we get from the community,” Kent said.
“I am 79 years old, and volunteering at the Chocolate Church is my passion at this point in my life,” said board member Paula McKenney, a resident of Woolwich. “I want to do all I can to preserve this for the next hundred years.”
This year, the Maine Arts Commission promised to match donations up to $50,000 for restoration of the building. Thanks to upward of $20,000 contributed by Kent, they have been able to reach that goal.
For Kent, it’s pretty simple.
“The building’s worth saving,” he said.
As for the paint color, that’s here to stay.
“We have our chocolate registered at the paint store,” Kent said.
This story has been updated to correct Paula McKenney’s title and the source of funding for some earlier parts of church renovations.
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