The heads of Old Testament prophets lie on the ground near the south entrance of Washington National Cathedral, scaffolding surrounds the central tower and, upon close inspection, parts of the ornamental limestone exterior are cleaner than the rest.
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Ten years after a 5.8-magnitude earthquake hit the region, damaging the cathedral and other buildings, stone masons of the District’s gothic place of worship say their work to repair the building is halfway complete.
“When the earthquake happened, I thought, ‘Wow — we have got a task ahead of us,’ ” Joe Alonso, the head stone mason, said Thursday. “Everything here is handmade. You look at the incredible detail on the stone carvings here and it’s all hand done. … It’s just the nature of the work.”
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The earthquake — centered about 87 miles southwest of Washington — hit on the afternoon of Aug. 23, 2011. It was the strongest East Coast tremor in 67 years, causing a minute-long disruption that could be felt as far away as Montreal, St. Louis and Jacksonville, Fla.
The seismic shaking resulted in few damages and injuries throughout the region, but the cathedral was left with $34 million of repairs. The temblor caused stone angels to fall from the top of the cathedral, and pinnacles — the tips on the cathedral — shifted into precarious placements that some likened to a game of Jenga.
Stone parts weighing upward of two tons fell onto the cathedral roof, some bouncing off and landing on the ground 300 feet below. One finial, or spire top, plummeted hundreds of feet into a shrub below, while two others also broke off their spires. Cracks appeared in the flying buttresses on the older east side, pinnacles on top of the main tower and angels cracked as well.
Alonso, who was at the cathedral the day of the earthquake, heard the bells ringing on their own as the tower swayed.
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Though the damage was extensive, engineers said there were no structural problems.
“If the [earthquake] had lasted another 2 or 3 seconds we would have lost a tremendous amount more of stone,” Alonso said. “It could have been a lot worse.”
The cathedral temporarily closed for repairs that year, and the church began raising money to restore the building, which is the sixth-largest cathedral in the world. The Episcopal cathedral took 83 years and $65 million to build, and was completed in 1990.
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By 2015, the first phase of the anticipated decades-long project was completed. The $10 million renovation fixed the internal damage and parts of the exterior.
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The cathedral’s stone masons have since completed a number of other restorations that include an intricate process to keep as much of the original stonework as possible. On Thursday, visitors could be seen inside the building, where colorful reflections of the stained glass windows danced across the columns.
The team has stabilized the central tower with scaffolding, holes in the roof have been patched up, and several pinnacles have been restored, Alonso said.
The stone masons also repaired and cleaned cracks in the flying buttresses, which support the weight of the building on the outside. The speed of the restoration has been limited by the pace of donations and the intricacy of the stone-carving work. Much of the restorations done so far have been focused on the north end of the church, wrapping around to the east.
Alonso said the church has raised about $16 million from donations from the public, but about $18 million more is needed. He estimated the second phase of the restoration work, which would target the central tower where most of the substantive damages are found, would take at least another 10 years.
“We rely on small donations, but folks over the last 10 years have been helping us out. Halfway there,” he said with a chuckle.