St. Mark’s, LeRoy Awarded Two Roof Repair Grants

St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, LeRoy was awarded two grants this summer that helped address a long-standing roof issue that caused disintegrating plaster and discolored paint above the altar inside the church. A further concern was the possible damage to the very large and notable “Resurrection Window,” designed by the Rev. Bishop John Barrett Kerfoot (1816-1881), first Bishop of Pittsburgh on the wall below this area.

The Rochester Area Community Foundation provided a grant for $5,000 from their Historic Preservation Fund, which is one of many different grant opportunities that the foundation oversees in an eight county area. Information on their grants is at https://www.racf.org/.

The church also received a $12,000 grant through the Episcopal Diocese of Western New York from the Holy Communion Fund, named after a church that closed and bequest their money to help other Episcopal churches with building needs in the Diocese. Both grants made a big impact on the work that St. Mark’s could do.

Prior to this summer, the leak had been fixed multiple times. There were recurring issues since at least the 1960s, and in fact, the problem may have started several decades earlier when a lightning strike hit one of the chimneys, as reported in the LeRoy Gazette News in 1925.

This year, the church chose CBono3 Corp. of Great Valley, New York, because of their detailed proposal for the repair, which included solutions that had never been used. The company specializes in historic buildings and slate roofs. The work required a 120’ aerial lift and good weather to deal with the height and steep pitch of the roof.

With the successful completion of this project, the church will enter phase two next year with plaster repair and painting. In addition to Sunday morning worship services, St. Mark’s is used for a variety of community events, such as the annual Music at St. Mark’s concert series, Opera on the Oatka concerts, and the upcoming Rotary-sponsored production of A Christmas Carol radio theater.

The current St. Mark’s Church was built in 1869 in the English Gothic style and replaced an earlier building on Church Street. St. Mark’s is on the National Register of Historic Places.