From the middle of June there have been dramatic changes at Ashmont. The parish is undertaking a complete restoration of the building envelope, together with the updating of interior systems and finishes and the addition of an elevator and an entry ramp.
It is this last item that is most clearly evident from Ashmont Street. The original granite steps of the north and main entrance from Ashmont Street into the church have been removed and salvaged for resuse, the area for the ramp excavated, footings and ramp walls poured, and forms and rebar set for the reset granite steps and for the rest of the ramp.
The original steps were typical for the era when they were installed: there was no railing and the floor of the narthex issued directly onto the top step, not onto a landing. The new accessible entrance will provide a landing at the top of the stair and a ramp will go east along Ashmont Street to another landing and then to a final ramp going south along side the tower to the parking lot grade. We anticipate this new accessible entrance will be open and ready for use in September.
Other visible changes include the erection of scaffolding at the west side of the church along Bushnell Street, at the south side along Lombard Street, along the east side of the church, as well as scaffolding at the parish house. This scaffolding will support the workers as they completely repoint the granite and sandstone exterior walls of the church, repoint much of the yellow brick and sandstone of the parish house, and as they remove for complete restoration all of the windows in the church, both the figural windows at the clerestory and at first floor, as well as the "temporary", rose-colored diamond quarry windows in the clerestory.
The Great Window above the main entrance to the church, the first to be removed for restoration, is already making its way piece-by-piece to a Dorchester glass studio.
Invisible from the street, but no less important is the renovation of the former nursery on the basement level of the parish house into fully accessible men's and women's restrooms.
