The steeple of one of the oldest churches in San Antonio is almost completely obscured after workers recently installed a scaffolding system that fully envelops the spire.
The scaffolding, a temporary structure of platforms that supports the construction crew and materials, was put in place in early March for work to replace the entire roof of the sanctuary and steeple at St. Joseph Catholic Church.
Damage to the roof of the church, as well as to the roof of San Fernando Cathedral and about 50 other facilities in the archdiocese, occurred during hailstorms in April and May 2021, leading to the need for repairs across many of the facilities.
“With those two storms, we’ve done a significant amount of work from the insurance side in the diocese,” said Logan Underdown, risk manager for the Archdiocese of San Antonio.
The project to repair the roof at St. Joseph got started in December and is expected to be completed in June, and the work to repair the roof of the cathedral was completed in March 2023, both part of a $50 million insurance claim that involved about 200 roof replacements.
St. Joseph is one of the last of the structures to be fixed, Underdown said. The roofer is SLK Construction, which is based near Houston.
Located at 623 E. Commerce St., St. Joseph occupies the probable second site of the Mission San Antonio de Valero, later known as the Alamo, before it was moved in 1724 to where it sits now, according to Alamo historians.
St. Joseph was built in 1876 and its steeple, which towers above the tree canopy, was added in 1898, according to a historical account on the church website. Its stained-glass windows were purchased in 1902 from a glass factory in Bavaria, Germany, at a cost of $3,000.
Sometimes referred to as “St. Joske’s” after owners of the adjacent department store sought to buy the church in 1945, the Gothic-style “holdout” building is surrounded on three sides by the Shops of Rivercenter Mall in a busy tourist area.
The activity and other structures surrounding St. Joseph made the scaffolding installation complicated and required temporarily blocking of the street, Underdown said. In addition, a great deal of scaffolding is necessary during the repair because of the steeple’s height.
Archdiocese construction
There are about 175 locations where churches, schools and social service organizations are overseen by the Archdiocese of San Antonio in its sprawling 19-county region of South Texas.
The power outages during Winter Storm Uri in February 2021 also caused extensive water and plumbing damage to its buildings in about 75 locations, Underdown said.
“2021 was a devastating year,” he said. But repairs to damage from the winter storm are now nearly complete. For the most part, insurance has covered the cost. But each parish also contributes a monthly fee to help pay for property insurance that covers its buildings, spreading the risk across the archdiocese.
In some cases, churches were able to use the roof replacements and upgrades to transition to a more sustainable metal roofing material because the cost of asphalt shingles had increased significantly due to demand.
Both the cathedral and St. Joseph have copper roofing, which when exposed to the elements begins to oxidize and turn from polished bronze to gray-green or brilliant green.
“[St. Joseph] will be shiny new copper for a little while, and then it starts turning pretty quickly,” Underdown said. “If you go look at San Fernando, it’s already starting to turn.”
Another historic house of worship in downtown San Antonio, the Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church, at 617 S. Santa Rosa Ave., has also been undergoing restoration.
The Romanesque-style church was built in 1911 by the Claretians, a religious clerical congregation of men headquartered in Rome, and is not under direct management of the archdiocese.
A multi-phase project to restore the church inside and out — and to repair the church’s roof and bell tower, which houses bells originally at San Fernando, began in 2018.
