Green Envelope Project

Weather, age, and woodpeckers have taken a toll on the wood siding and spires. Wood buildings, especially in New England, are frequently victims of this type of damage. Drone footage and cameras captured the images shown here of wood rot in our spires and siding. Woodpeckers, seeking insects in the soft wood, create further damage, enlarging holes that allow water penetration into interior spaces.

After two years of extensive assessment, contractors found no structural issues in the building; however, our project team determined that we needed to go beyond replacing damaged siding and repainting and create a water-tight exterior.

Weather permitting, work is scheduled for March-September 2026. Beginning with the front facade, successive sides of the building will be surrrounded with scaffolding to provide access to damaged surfaces. Building use and safe access will be maintained for the duration of the work.

The contractor will add insulation to exterior walls, replace siding, repair and paint the steeple, and replace the badly rotted ornate finials atop the steeple and the eight spires.

The new siding will be a combination of shiplap, clapboard, composite, and wood. Shiplap is frequently used in historic structures; it has a slight overlap that creates texture and provides insulation. The spires and finials will be reproduced using composite materials, insect and weather resistant.

All of materials for the project have passed historic preservation requirements and were approved by the Old Center Historic District Commission in Jan 2024.

Since 1836, there have been numerous preservation and repair projects – steeple replacement after a hurricane, reinforcements for the ceiling and exterior walls, stabilizing the bell housing. In the last 22 years, projects involving clapboard, structural reinforcements, fire suppression, drainage issues, accessibility, building and safety improvements have totaled over $4.5M.

Those efforts, like the current project, were funded by generous member donations, operational funds from North Parish, grants and donations from local foundations, including North Andover’s Community Preservation Act (funding that is approved by town residents), Essex Heritage, and others.

The cost of the current Green Envelope Project is estimated to be just over one million dollars. $480,000 will come from a Community Preservation Act grant approved by North Andover town members in May 2024. Several generous donors have stepped forward. The rest needs to come from other sources.

More is still needed – and every gift helps!

You can donate to the Green Envelope Project through North Parish (if paying by check, please write Green Envelope Project on the memo line) or through the 501c3 Friends of the 1836 Meeting House. All donations to this project will be utilized to maintain this historic building, the fifth Meeting House, part of the Old Center District of North Andover, home to an 1806 Paul Revere Bell (one of only 23 remaining bells cast at the Foundry during Revere’s time), host to many community groups and events, and the current North Parish Unitarian Universalist congregation.