Friends of St Rose, Inc.

Rosebush

Parking Lot Expansion

One of the biggest safety concerns we've faced over the years has been to provide enough off street parking for events held at St. Rose. The section of land that surrounds St. Rose to the south and to the east has been in the Devlin family ever since it was purchased from the government in the mid 1800's. Alan Knobel is a descendant of this family and graciously donated enough additional land in 2006 to the Friends of St. Rose to alleviate this need. We were not able to complete this project before Alan passed away but believe he knows that we followed through on this gift. Click on this picture to see the incredible amount of volunteer assistance we received to remove the trees and finish the parking lot expansion.

Bell Tower Restoration

Bell tower restoration has been a major task facing us ever since we began preserving St. Rose. Thanks to the support and engineering of dedicated volunteers we are proud to have this restoration completed. This project began in 2010 with the restoration of the lattice and louvers. Scaffolding was gradually erected to six towers high during the summer of 2011 reaching heights of over 40 feet above the ground. The 2011 Bell Tower Restoration Photo Gallery reveals the engineering it took to build this structure over several month's time which was initially used last spring during the tuck-pointing project. Great attention to detail and researching old photographs was required to restore the bell tower back to its majestic past.

Tuck-point Restoration

Tuck pointing Tuck-pointing, or 're-pointing' as is properly called since this is restoration, is among the biggest projects we have ever faced at St. Rose. We're fortunate to hire a skilled craftsman whose expertise allowed us to both repoint using lime mortar in the joints that had failed and replace ten broken limestones located on the bell tower. Christoph Henning is a stone carver and restoration specialist from Connecticut who attended our Ice Cream Social last August and expressed an interest in this project to his extended family from Pine Island. He is originally from Germany and his commissions include the New York Public Library and the Victorian Mansion in Portland, Maine. It seemed obvious that he was the perfect artisan to lead this project. We have learned a great deal about historic preservation and restoration of stone buildings form Christoph. We were able to repoint approximately 50% of the areas that need repointing and replace ten broken limestones on the bell tower before our allocated funds were depleted. We hope to raise enough money this year to complete this project next summer.

Visit our Photo Gallery to view pictures of this project.

Masonry Restoration at St. Rose

Written by Christoph Henning
While visiting family in Pine Island in 2010, my wife, son and I had the pleasure of attending the ice cream social of the Friends of St. Rose. I had never seen this beautiful limestone church and was thrilled by the work of the Friends. At the social I learned about the upcoming tuckpointing project and, as a professional in historic preservation, I pointed out to my brother-in-law (Mr. P.) that it was not necessary to remove mortar joints that were in good condition and that the church and its building history would be better served by a selective repair of the joints.
Read more...

Bell Tower Artifacts Discovered

Marv in the tower Marv Bronner has spent several hours over the years cleaning out debris and making structural repairs inside the bell tower. Last summer, he was surprised to find the original shipping tags still in tact that accompanied the bell over 100 years ago. It's amazing that these two paper tags survived the elements inside this tower that has always been exposed to the elements. The bell was made in 1896 and came from the Meneely Bell Company of Troy, New York . It weighs just under 3,000 pounds including the mountings, clapper, tolling hammer, and swinging bell wheel. The bell was transported by boat all the way from New York around the southeastern United States and up the Mississippi River to be received in Red Wing. This magnificent bell resides in the St. Rose cemetery and photos of the shipping tags are found in the photo gallery when you 'Read more'...