Reopening ceremony Saturday

By EARL KELLY, Staff Writer

Published 10/24/09

Architect Ernest Flagg, who designed the Naval Academy Chapel more than a century ago, no doubt will be smiling down from the sweet hereafter today when the restoration of his masterpiece will be unveiled.

Flagg will have no trouble looking into the chapel from above, as restoration included uncovering the 20-foot diameter oculus, or round skylight, located in the dome. The skylight, situated 121 feet above the chapel floor, has been plastered over for decades to hide its deterioration, academy officials said.

"That whole center area of the chapel just radiates now," said Tobias Freccia, president of California-based Fiarde Architectural Design, which oversaw the project.

The nearly $4 million project also included restoring plaster moldings and decorations that had deteriorated over the years because of time and moisture, and returning the paint scheme to the subdued off-white shades that Flagg envisioned.

Flagg did not leave a drawing or description of the interior colors, so restorers looked at old paintings, photographs and postcards, as well as the 1955 movie "A Man Called Peter," which was filmed partly in the Naval Academy Chapel.

The chapel's walls are plaster, made to look like limestone blocks, and during a partial renovation in the 1970s, many of the fake blocks were painted tan.

The decision to return the walls to white was not made lightly, academy officials said, and the Chief of Naval Operations had to approve the change,

As part of the recent restoration, craftsmen went over the walls in detail, correcting cracks and flaws.

"We went over those walls between 12 and 15 times each," Freccia said. "We became intimate with that church."

The restoration work also involved refinishing the pine floors, all 200 of the pews and prayer kneelers, installing new pew cushions and replacing the carpet. The balconies and their furnishings also underwent restoration.

Model ship builders affiliated with the Naval Academy Museum went so far as to restore the votive ship model that is suspended from the ceiling in an ancient tradition to serve as a reminder of those who are in peril on the seas.

Workers encountered some unpleasant surprises, said Robert E. Taylor, project manager for the Naval Academy.

Pointing to the oldest part of the chapel, where the floors were installed around 1908 when the chapel was built, Taylor said the boards were so worn, they didn't have enough wood left in them to sand and refinish.

"These were all the way down to the tongue-and-groove joints," Taylor said. "If we had gone another one-sixteenth of an inch, we would have hit it (joints)."

To replace the worn-out flooring, Taylor said, workers used reclaimed southern pine lumber that had been salvaged from industrial buildings constructed about the same time as the Naval Academy Chapel.

Taylor said the flooring in the nave, which was added to the original chapel in 1938, were capable of being restored.

"The plaster work (also) was more than we expected," Taylor said. "Sometimes, you would start to rout out a crack and the whole area (of wall) would fall off."

In all, the project cost $3.9 million, with $2.3 million coming from federal funds and $670,000 from the Naval Academy Alumni Foundation Chapel Centennial Fund.

The Class of 1969 contributed $925,000, according to the academy, to refinish the floors and pews.

The academy's senior chaplain, Navy Capt. Peter McGeory, praised Fiarde Architectural Design and the general contractor, Upper Marlboro-based Tuckman-Barbee Construction for being easy to work with during the past year, and for completing the work ahead of schedule.

Workers sealed off the chapel with a temporary wall, so that half of the building could stay in use at all times, academy McGeory said.

"There was no interruption of services," McGeory said. "It was a little tight some Sundays, but we managed."

McGeory also praised workers for being careful with a building so full of priceless artifacts.

"Those Tiffany glass windows are priceless," he said looking around the chapel, "and the organ has 15,000 pipes, and the way they meticulously took care of everything was spectacular."

The chapel, which seats about 2,500 people, is host to a number of large seasonal events, McGeory said, and celebrations will be held this year as usual.

There will be a reopening ceremony at the chapel today at 11 a.m.