CONTACT:
Deanna Bremer Fisher
Director of Marketing & Development
Cleveland Restoration Society
Phone: (216) 426-3111
Fax: (216) 426-1975
E-mail: dbremer@clevelandrestoration.org

St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church will light its steeple for the first time tonight.  St. Michael, 3114 Scranton Road, is the latest Cleveland church to complete an exterior lighting project through the Cleveland Restoration Society’s Sacred Landmarks Assistance Program. 

“The steeples, domes, and towers of Cleveland’s sacred landmarks are beacons of hope that embody human aspiration and our ancestors’ confidence in the future,” says Kathleen H. Crowther, executive director of the Cleveland Restoration Society (CRS). 

Through the Reinhold W. Erickson Fund of The Cleveland Foundation, the Cleveland Restoration Society has lighted fifteen sacred landmarks in the city since 1995.  This exterior illumination provides a visible connection between Cleveland’s religious congregations and the greater community that they serve.  To be eligible, a landmark must be visible from Cleveland’s Inner Belt.  In addition to completing a lighting design for each church, CRS conducts an architectural assessment of the steeple or tower, prioritizes repairs to be made, and pays a small portion of the cost of repairs. 

St. Michael the Archangel was designed by Adolph Druiding and dedicated in 1892.  Rising to 232 feet, the main spire of St. Michael’s is an orientation point visible for miles.  “The combination of height and blackened rubble stone made the lighting of St. Michael’s especially challenging,” said Michael Fleenor, director of preservation programs at CRS, “The solution developed by lighting consultant David Kinkaid was to paint the interior of the bell chamber white to reflect the light and to mount fixtures internally and externally.”  CRS awarded a grant of $32,000 to the church to pay for lighting and repairs to the spire.

Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, 2021 East 22^nd Street and Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, will be lighted next week.  Trinity had been illuminated several years ago, but many of the fixtures had begun to fail.  CRS awarded Trinity a grant of $17,750 to pay for a new lighting design and minor, but necessary, repairs.  The new lighting highlights the square central bell tower and the octagonal angle pinnacles at each corner.  Additional lighting, to be funded by the Cathedral, will light the sides of the nave, highlighting the buttresses and tracery of the church’s Indiana limestone façade.  The English Gothic building was designed by noted architect Charles Schweinfurth and consecrated in 1907.

CRS has maps available for the public to take a self-guided driving tour of Cleveland’s lit steeples.  Maps and other information are available at CRS’s headquarters, the Sarah Benedict House, 3751 Prospect Avenue, Cleveland.  Call 216-426-1000 for more information or visit www.clevelandrestoration.org.

The Cleveland Restoration Society is the region’s largest non-profit preservation organization and is a Local Partner affiliate of the National Trust.  Founded in 1972, CRS is dedicated to the preservation of greater Cleveland’s historic resources.

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