Views from the top of the Presbyterian spire in Albion

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 1 July 2013 at 12:00 am

Photos courtesy of Ron Mathes

ALBION – In 2000, a contractor was hired to climb to the top of the 175-foot-high spire at the Albion First Presbyterian Church, part of an inspection and repointing of the steeple.

Ron Mathes of Holley asked one of the workers to take up a camera and get some shots from up high.

Mathes, a retired Postal Service worker in Albion, unearthed these photos and shared them with The Orleans Hub.

“I watched the man climb the steeple using a long rope which he would throw around the steeple and work his way up like a lumberjack,” Mathes wrote in an email. “After the first day, he used a chair-platform that was suspended from a pulley. I was talking with him one day, and he offered to take my camera up and snap some photos for me.”

Mathes saved the photos on floppy discs. The images were recently moved to his PC.

“I especially like the close up of the top of the steeple,” Mathes said. “From the ground you have no idea how big it really is.”

The last picture shows the very top of the steeple.