Field Trip #1: First Scotts and St. Michael's

I tried to reverse the order of the posts so that they would climax with St. Michael's, but I couldn't get it to work. If you want to read them as I intended them to be read, start with First Scots and work backwards. At any rate, enjoy the tour of the stuff tourists never see!

St. Michael's Eps. Church Continued, still...

After the bells, and several more flights of stairs--

Balcony #1! What a great view! The balcony wraps all the way around the steeple with about a 3' walking space. The breeze and the view were amazing.


A typical spiral stair from inside....
This is a shot from the top deck. Few people have ever been up here. What a privilege.

I know this is is an odd picture, but there wasn't much room in the tippy top of the steeple. The post in the middle is the support post for the stairs. As you can see, it stops here! Can't go any higher.


More Joinery and beams...

Here is a picture of the clock gears that run the faces. This is one expensive puppy! I think there is only one other set that follows this same setup. Custom made, baby!

More St. Michael's

This is the bell-ringer's room (though I didn't see anyone who was a dead ringer for his brother...) There are 8 bells, ranging in weight from 500 to 1900 lbs. The church is looking for volunteers to help with this amazing tradition. Contact Jon Paul if you are interested!

Behind Jon Paul is a whiteboard with bell-ringer's sheet music! I wish I understood it...Mostly rhythm patterns and such. The bells don't necessarily make music like a piano or guitar (duh) but they ring in specialized sequences (some called "Kings" and "Queens"). These patterns take a while to actually execute. The first step in creating bell music is to "set" the bells.

Here are the bells! Note the long wooden pieces that are mounted onto the bells. These are used to "set" the bells. From below, the setter pulls the bells and lets them rock back and forth, each time the bell swinging further and further until, like the pirate boat rides at amusement parks, it hangs upside down, perfectly balanced (and propped up by the wooden set rod) until it comes time to actually start the music. The setter does this a few hours before the meetings start.
Once the bells are set, music can be created! The ringers (all eight of them) gather in the pulling room and pull each bell in sequence. It doesn't sound like much at first. But slowly they begin to alternate the pulls and the rhythm evolves into a bell song for a "King" or "Queen" movement. Then, they cascade back into disarray until they no longer chime. I want to go and watch sometime (you can go on Thursday Evenings).


If you look closely, you can see some bronze colored rings along the inside of the bell. This is from the tuning the bells received after Hugo. The bells were removed and sent over to England (where they were cast) and retuned.

St. Michael's Eps. Church

By far, one of the coolest churches in Charleston (and the one with the best view!) is St. Michael's Episc. Church. We got a little tour of the bell tower, including the bells themselves, the balconies and the tippy tippy top of the spire (where the stairs stop and the graffitti is sometiems centuries old! This inside view of the sanctuary shows how the ceiling arches inward. I'll show you a picture of the other side of this ceiling in a minute.

This is the stair well leading to the antechamber of the bellfry. There wasn't much to see there...mostly like a plain room with a rug over the trap door. On to the attic!

This is a shot of us standing on the beams and rafters above the plaster ceiling I showed you a minute ago. I wish you could see the brick and timber work better from this angle...Pretty impressive.
Here is what I'm mostly interested in....These are the hand-hewn and joined trusses. The old joinery in this church is amazing!

Notice the wooden pegs along the back beam. These pegs hold some of the joints that keep the roof together.

Here is an interesting little thing...Remember that big chandelier we saw earlier in the ceiling shot? This winch is used to raise and lower it for maintenance.

St. Scotts Pres. Church

WOW! Today was a day to remember. We had the once-in-a-lifetime chance to go "behind the scenes" of two of the coolest buildings in Charleston: The First Scots Presbyterian Church, and St. Michael's Episcopal Church! Hopefully, because of our experiences with this school, these "once-in-a-lifetime" chances will become a normal part of life, restoring and studying these wonderful gems of historic architecture. Here are some photos for your enjoyment.


This is one of my favorite rooms of this particular church. The yellow window cast a great "antique" light over everything...Made it feel like stepping into an old picture.