NEW ORLEANS — If you are riding down Napoleon Avenue, take a look up and you will see scaffolding a few hundred feet into the air. The steeple at Basilica of St. Stephen has sat atop the church for more than 100 years. Three years after Hurricane Ida damaged the steeple, it's finally, getting fixed.
Towering above parts of the uptown skyline, Monsignor Christopher Nalty, Pastor of Good Shepherd Parish said, "At the time it was the tallest structure in the city of New Orleans until the Hibernia Bank building was built in the 30s."
For more than a hundred years the steeple at Basilica of St. Stephen Church has stood like a sentinel, watching over generations of parishioners as history unfolded beneath its spire. "People can not only see and remind themselves of Jesus. but find us," said the Pastor.
According to the city's Historic District Landmarks Commission, it took 16 years to build the church, with the church dedicated in 1888. The spire was then installed between 1905 and 1906.
"They actually had a ramp built from here to Camp Street all the way to St Charles Avenue to bring the steel all the way to the top of the steeple." Pastor Christopher Nalty says initially the steeple had a steel frame and was covered in terra-cotta tiles, but over time spalling began.
"In the 80s they out a new wood and copper coating around the steeple."
Then in 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit and then Hurricane Ida ripped through in 2021, both storms leaving the steeple battered. "It ripped the copper off which then opened up it the wood down below and over time that wood started to rot."
Now wrapped in 200 feet of towering scaffolding, the church on Napoleon Avenue, stands at the center of a delicate restoration. "They're going to replace any of the wood substructure that's attached to the steel on the steeple and then replace all the copper."
As the steeple rises again, it serves as a towering reminder of the power of faith. The steeple guides parishioners and passersby alike to look upward in trust and hope.
The church says construction will take six weeks, and they hope everything will be complete and the scaffolding removed by Christmas.
