The extent of the damage to the lower section of the buttress.
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — City officials say the damage on the back of the former Notre Dame du Sacre Coeur Church is far worse than it looks.
The exterior bricks on southwest buttress have fallen down and there is separation in the bricks on the southeast corner as well.
The damage was caused by copper thieves who pulled out the gutter system and pipes.
"It was directly the result of the water falling directly on the bricks," said Building Inspector William Meranti last week.
But the church is in no danger of collapsing, unlike St. Francis of Assisi a block away that had its steeple removed in an emergency procedure that ended a week ago. In that case, water got into the cap on the bell tower, undermining the structure.
"We are confident in the structural integrity of the building," Mayor Richard Alcombright said last week.
Meranti concurred, saying the interior of Notre Dame, a decade or so younger than the 1869 St. Francis, has a different internal configuration and is more stable.
"We're not fearful of any collapse," he said. In fact, city crews pulled out a lot of the loose brick. "We helped knock it down because we didn't want it to fall on anyone's head."
The city owns the building and Meranti said the structure has been scrutinized since the problem was noticed earlier this winter. Water had obviously gotten between bricks causing them to separate from the mortar but nothing could be done because of the freezing temperatures.
Jersey barriers have been put up to keep cars out of the narrow driveway between the church corner and the school.
The city purchased the East Main Street church, its rectory and school in 2007 largely to save the steeple, which is highly visible on the city's eastern entrance. Plans initially had been to flip the property over to the Contemporary Artists Center but that deal never came to fruition.
Then the idea was to sell the rectory to the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts Foundation and the school to developers Arch Street LLC to be turned into high-end apartments. Only the rectory sale went through as the economic collapse nixed the real estate development.
Repairs were made to elements of the steeple and two rear portions of the roof in 2009 through a matching grant from the Massachusetts Historical Commission.
Meranti said the city is "working on devising a plan" for addressing the damage. It will likely require hiring experienced masons to repair the buttresses.
"This is beyond the abilities of our maintenance crew."
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