For months, it seemed the only way to get a 420-pound cast iron bell out of the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church building would be to cut a hole in the roof and lift it out.
Then John Fernandes of A&A Crane and Rigging in Bridgeport came along.
“This was just the easiest way,” Fernandes said of the slick maneuvering it took to get the bell out of the church without destroying the building.
How slick?
The roughly 100-year-old bell has a 27.5‑inch diameter.
The opening to its place in the church’s steeple is only 24 inches wide.
And the only way to get there is by climbing a rickety wooden staircase, so steep it might as well be a ladder.
Church For Sale
Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church started as a vibrant church for the Valley’s Greek community, so for the past 90 years it didn’t seem to matter how the bell would be removed from the building.
When the church was founded in 1919, the parish bought the bell from nearby St. Peter and Paul Church for $150. The building was simply constructed around the bell.
But as membership dried up, and the parish decided to merge with St. Barbara Church in Orange, the task of moving the bell came to hand.
“The bell will serve in memory of the early days of the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church,” said church member Jerry Vartelas, who organized the bell’s removal.
St. Barbara Church intends to use the bell in its main chapel, said Gregory Stamos, an Ansonia lawyer and member of Holy Trinity.
“Ironically, St. Barbara, despite being a larger church, has a very modest bell,” Stamos said. “So they’re excited they’ll be able to upgrade their bell. And the new members from Holy Trinity will take a certain pride and comfort in hearing the sound of something that will remind them of their roots.”
But first they had to get it there.
The first couple of contractors who bid on the job proposed cutting a whole in the roof, or taking apart the exterior wall and pulling the bell out with a crane that way, Vartelas said.
“That was more costly,” Fernandes said. “It’s easier for the rigging company because they could just take it out with a crane. But it would cost a lot more money for the church. And it would take a lot longer too.”
When Fernandes told Varetlas he could remove the bell without cutting into the building, Vartelas was sold.
How did he do it?
“It was really simple,” Fernandes said.
But his explanation of the procedure doesn’t sound that way.
The bell was disassembled in the attic. Church bells such as this have several parts, including a large wheel that allows a rope to ring the bell from below, a frame and a yoke.
Fernandes said he and one other worker were able to take the bell down through the small attic opening by tilting it at a slight angle and lowering it through the hole with a chain pulley.
The room beneath the steeple is a couple steps higher than the adjoining balcony, so Fernandes made a cart that was as tall as the step and slid the bell onto the cart.
He rolled that cart to the edge of the balcony – about three yards away – and then lowered the bell using a “Genie Lift,” a type of stabilized fork lift.
The bell was then placed on a separate wheeled cart on the first floor, and was rolled out onto a platform built on the church’s front steps.
From there, Fernandes was able to pick up the bell with a crane and swing it onto his truck for transport.
(Watch the video above to see the bell being lifted off the front steps and to hear Fernandes explain how he did it.)
Thanks, Valley
The church building is now for sale, and the members have officially transferred to St. Barbara Church.
But Holy Trinity church members wanted to leave their mark on the Valley, and to say thanks to the community that welcomed their families.
So the church has donated $50,000 to the Valley Community Foundation to create a fund that will help pay for charity works in the area.
“There were certainly wonderful national Orthodox charities that would have been logical recipients,” Stamos said. “But you thank your immediate neighbors first. That’s what this was – a thanks, and an acknowledgement to the Valley for opening their doors to the Greek immigrants a century ago.”
