For many years this was one of the largest churches in the Presbyterian Synod in the Pittsburgh region Built in early 1900's it has stood solid as a rock till the 1980's when the steel mills went down in the region and people started moving away by late 90's the church was struggling and finally in 2014 after shutting down and merging with another church the old church was sold to a very large Non Denominational Church group who has spent much time lovingly restoring and cleaning it . The church was open about a month when a horrific summer storm rolled thru on a Sunday morning in late July and one of its steeples was hit by Lightning destroying it and putting a hole in roof and leaking storm water into the church luckily no one was injured but they have a mess on their hands which a restoration contractor is cleaning up an where I will have to do some fire alarm replacement where Horn's and strobes got water soaked.
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| Damaged left tower |
Needless to say the non denominational group plans on installing a lightning arrestor system after this incident which is actually the 2nd time the church was hit after it happened seems couple old parishioners told them the church was hit once before.
Needless to say you have to ask why the original owners of the church did not install the lightning rods in first place as many churches have them. But you would be surprised just how many do not have them as well.
They cost around $5-30.000+ to install depending on size of building but they are well worth the cost .
Lightning can and will hit any time and anywhere it pleases. The rule of the highest structure getting hit is an old wives tale . This church sits lower than rest of the hill its on and the original church goers probably felt safe they would never get hit again how wrong they where but you know how church committees work if you have ever been on one
Ironically a Catholic Church about a mile away was hit a week later by lighting which caused damage to its organ.
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