The First Congregational Church of Williamstown has identified needs that are critical to preserving its historic building. Many of these needs are immediate: if not remedied they will cause further deterioration of the building’s key structural elements. The critical problems include the roof, steeple, and interior structures. Meetings with the fire chief and building inspector of Williamstown have clarified that any ongoing attempts to temporarily repair the structure will be inadequate and would not be approved.  Without prompt replacement/major renovation, this building is in jeopardy.

The First Congregational Church of Williamstown undertook a building assessment in the fall of 2018 to identify deficiencies of its historic building. It has already committed more than $300,000 to complete a fire suppression system for the entire building (completed in August 2021).  This project has required five years to fund from the church’s limited budget.  While church leaders were aware of some critical building problems, they needed to identify all important needs. Centerline Architects of Bennington, Vermont conducted an assessment that not only identified critical needs over the next 5-10 years but also outlined the order and timing of repairs as well as approximate costs. The findings, including updates since the original assessment, are noted below. 

The cost estimates were created to include both the hard costs of construction and the soft costs of design, contingency, permitting, etc.  However, these estimates may change based on the design choices, unforeseen problems, and timing of construction.  Also, these cost estimates should be increased by 3-4 percent each year to account for inflation. The plan is to complete all of these projects with this campaign, a step that will reduce inflation costs and allow the ability to sequence work to maximize efficiency.