Rebuilding a Vermont Synagogue

Beth Jacob Synagogue New Sanctuary Dedication

2010-12-19T15:28:00.000-05:00

Dedication

2010-11-14T21:15:00.002-05:00

The new sanctuary was dedicated today by a crowd of about 80 people including members and local officials. Above, Rabbi Michal Woll leads the religious school children in a version of "Ma Tovu" with words revised for the event. Below, Michael Chernick and Max Hale install the new mezuzah created by David Hale on the doorpost.

More Finishing Touches

2010-11-08T20:39:00.002-05:00

We continue to inch toward completion of the building as the contractor works through the "punch list." The sign is now on the side of the building and various other small things have been finished. The carpet for the bimah is still missing, but most other visible changes have been finished. Our celebratory open house and Hanukat ha Bayit will be on Sunday, November 14, from 12:30 until 2:00 pm. Hope to see you all there!

Finishing Touches

2010-10-23T18:27:00.004-04:00

The reconstruction is almost complete! The congregation is moving in and there are just a few finishing touches left to complete! The sanctuary has been in use now for three weeks while the contractor has been completing the final tasks. We are now in the "punch list" phase, where the contractor has been given a list of final items that need to be completed. Our "Chanukat haBayit" open house will be on Sunday, November 14, at 12 noon. We hope to have a better picture of the finished exterior to post before then but there won't be any more postings for two weeks as we are taking a vacation!

More Finishes

2010-10-11T20:55:00.003-04:00

Wow! The new finishes just keep coming. Take a look at these two new shots. The top photo shows the new blue accent wall at the north end of the sanctuary and the bottom photo shows the finished maple wall around the bookcase at the southern wall. The bottom photo shows some simple landscaping around the exterior. More extensive landscaping is going to have to wait until the second phase of the project. Still to come in this phase is more paint on the exterior, a rug under the bimah and moving the ark and reading table into place, and couple of built-in benches, and some finishing details on the interior.

Exterior Color

2010-10-06T11:48:00.003-04:00

The contractor has started painting the exterior of the new building. The final color can be seen in the photo above. The "addition" at the back of the building will be painted a deep gray/blue color to contrast with the new building at the front. Only two sides of the new structure have been painted so far; rain today will not advance the cause, but the painters will be working inside today.

Moving In

2010-10-03T20:51:00.004-04:00

Religious school students, their parents, and other members of the congregation began the process of moving into our new space this afternoon. And what a hubbub of activity it was. Everyone said the shehechiyanu and Rabbi Woll lead the students and parents in some welcoming songs, including a special song that the kids will sing at the November 14th opening event. Then the chairs and books starting arriving. People spread throughout the building carrying chairs and unpacking boxes. There is still more work to be done on the building and more unpacking to do, but we got a good start of the process today.

Star is Installed

2010-09-30T21:09:00.004-04:00

The star screen was installed yesterday at the far end of the synagogue's sanctuary yesterday and it looks fantastic! The screen is made with horizontal slats of wood and the star shape is created from voids in the slats. Two windows can can seen through the slats. A light behind the screen illuminates the wall behind the screen to accentuate the star. The room lights were also installed, giving plenty of artificial light to the room for times when the abundant natural light is not enough. More wood working continued today with the installation of bookcases in the sanctuary.

Bimah Backdrop

2010-09-29T20:32:00.004-04:00

Work is almost finished on the popular wood panel behind the bimah (above -- the white specks in the photo are air-born dust caught by the flash). Work on the screen at the south end of the sanctuary is also continuing; I hope to be able to post a photograph tomorrow. the bookcases may also be shown in tomorrow's post. The maple floor in the sanctuary is complete and a new carpet now adorns the Daughly Gould room.

Final Push

2010-09-26T12:46:00.006-04:00

We are expecting a flurry of activity this coming week as the contractors try to get the space ready for religious school on Sunday. Although there is a lot to do we have been assured that the space will be useable on Sunday. There will be a few things that won't get done until later, but the built-ins will be arriving on Monday and additional painting will follow. We will move in on Sunday with the religious school students helping.

Some of the lights were installed late last week. These photos show the ner tamid and lights over the reading table (above) and the light and windows next to the yahrzeit boards (below). The ner tamid is a beautiful red that was not captured well by the camera. The memorial boards will be installed to the right of the light and will be one of the last things completed.

Woodworking Underway

2010-09-22T22:12:00.004-04:00

On the far side of Barre, wonderful things are happening in the wood shop at Lajeunesse Construction. All of the cabinetry is being fabricated there and will be transported to Montpelier early next week and installed in the synagogue. Above, a worker primes clapboards while wood for the area behind the bimah is stacked to the left. In the background rests a template for the cutout of the Star of David that be constructed in the screen at the south end of the sanctuary. Below, bookshelves rest upside down on desks after being finished with a clear coat.

Sanctuary Floor Installed

2010-09-21T20:27:00.005-04:00

The maple floor in the sanctuary has been installed and it looks terrific! This is the view looking toward the street end of the sanctuary. Bookcases, which are being made off site, will be installed in the space straight ahead. A closet is on the right and the door to the cellar stairway is to the left.

We are still working out the details of the flooring for the community room, but the old carpet has been pulled out and a new subflooring has been installed. The mustiness seems to be gone.

Progress Continues

2010-09-19T21:21:00.005-04:00

The new synagogue was a busy place last week. When we stopped by on Wednesday and Friday many subcontractors were busy trying to complete the project. The most visible change is that the clapboards have been installed on two sides of the building. The clapboards have yet to be painted. The new portion of the building will be tan with white trim while the older portion will be a dark grey-blue color.

Inside many of the walls have been painted with a preliminary coat. The photo below shows the new entrance into the Daughly Gould room and a peek into the sanctuary. We have decided to replace the carpet in the all-purpose room because the old carpet seemed musty when we opened up the building after it had been sealed up during construction.

Chairs are Reupholstered!

2010-09-13T20:25:00.005-04:00

Work on the synagogue took at 4-day break for Rosh Hashanah, Shabbat, and the workers' usual Sunday off. Work will be resume at a serious clip this week as the clapboards go on the exterior and paint is applied to the interior. In the meantime, the chairs for the sanctuary have been reupholstered in a new, green & gold, patterned fabric. In the photo above, Darryl Bloom works to load the chairs into a van for the trip back to Montpelier. The chairs are being stored off site until the building is done.

Two Spaces Joined

2010-09-05T21:08:00.004-04:00

The progress being made on the building is incredible! The temporary wall that had protected the community room during the rebuilding of the sanctuary has been taken down and the two spaces have been joined. Actually, it was much more complicated than that to join the two buildings, but the most visible part of it was the removal of the temporary wall. The photo above shows the new view from the Daughly Gould room into the new sanctuary. And what a wonderful sanctuary it will becoming. All of the windows and almost all of the sheet rock has been taped, giving the visitor and sense of the new space. It is a light and airy space with natural sunlight coming in from all directions.

Sheet Rocking Continues

2010-08-27T14:15:00.005-04:00

Sheet rocking continued in the sanctuary this week. The view above is similar to the last post, but today the contractor was working on connecting the two buildings securely. The photo below (looking south toward the road) shows that sheet rock now surrounds the interior of the sanctuary. Taping will continue into next week. The temporary wall between the two buildings will be removed by next Friday, and we should start to see some clapboards going up next week also. The chairs were taken to Essex Junction yesterday and today for reupholstering. The progress is very visible now!

Wallboard Going Up

2010-08-25T09:53:00.004-04:00

The wallboard is being installed in the sanctuary today (Wednesday). This picture has all sorts of "mystery dots" on it, but it shows the view looking just past where the bimah will be located toward the north wall (non-road side) of the sanctuary. The wallboard in the background and has been installed; there is a pile of wallboard in the bottom right corner of the photograph. The sprinkler pipes sticking through the ceiling will be removed because the city is unable to supply water to our sprinkler system.

Windows Installed

2010-08-21T21:29:00.002-04:00

The windows were installed Friday afternoon. Now the interior space can be kept dry and wall boarders can start to work their magic.

Interior Progress

2010-08-20T20:11:00.003-04:00

This was the scene at the construction site this morning. The rigid insulation has been installed on the ceiling and plywood has been added to the wall where the screen behind the bimah will be installed. Sheetrock should go onto the walls on Sunday.

Insulation, insulation

2010-08-17T13:26:00.009-04:00

It may be hot outside, but we know winter will return! The inside of the sanctuary was sprayed with foam last week and the exterior of the building was covered with rigid pink insulation board. Today similar rigid insulation is being added to the inside of the ceiling, giving us extra protection from the winter cold. Other developments from last week: the (non-operational) sprinkler pipes have been installed, the skylight has been installed, the roof has been completed, and the electrical wiring has been roughed in.

The tie rods have been installed in the ceiling to keep the walls from splaying out and the temporary supports inside that were visible in previous photographs have been removed. One can begin to get a sense of the openness of the new sanctuary now. In the basement the furnace and hot water heater have been moved into placed. The top photo shows the building being wrapped in Tyvek (a little of the insulation board is visible in the gable). The two interior photographs show the sanctuary looking toward the street (top) and the sanctuary looking back toward the Daughly Gould room (bottom).

Roof and Sprinkler

2010-08-10T15:56:00.004-04:00

Work continues outside and inside Beth Jacob on Harrison Avenue. Today the contractor's men were outside working on the roof while inside a subcontractor was beginning to install the pipes for the fire suppression system. Unfortunately, our intent to "sprinkle" the entire building has hit a snag with the city. Our subcontractor has discovered that there is not enough water pressure in the city's water main to support the sprinkler system that the city's ordinances require us to have. So the synagogue will not have an operational sprinkler system until the city upgrades its water main along Harrison Avenue, which could be years in the future. The city also will not let us install exposed sprinkler pipes or heads if the system is not operational because they would give the occupants a false sense of security. They are, however, allowing us to install hidden pipes in the ceiling of the sanctuary. We will have to install the rest of the fire suppression system at a later date.

Electrical Roughed In

2010-08-06T19:04:00.004-04:00

The electrical service is being roughed in to the new building. The photo above shows eastern wall of the sanctuary and the roof above it. The window to the left is at the back of the building. The small electrical boxes on the ceiling are for the two pendant lights that will hang above the bimah. The square shape below the boxes is where a skylight will be installed to cast light down on the bimah. (The diagonal beams and horizontal beam that you see are for temporary support!)

Meeting of the Minds

2010-08-03T06:34:00.002-04:00

This was the scene Friday morning as the architects and contractors made plans for the upcoming week. This week should see electrical, plumbing and sprinkler lines appearing in the building.

Roof Takes Shape

2010-07-28T10:09:00.003-04:00

The roof is beginning to take shape now. As you can see, the gable toward the parking lot has been built and the sub roofing is being nailed down as I write this. The top photograph shows the north edge of the reconstructed building. The north gable will have a window in it (which you can't see), which means we will get light into the sanctuary from four directions.

Rafters Continue

2010-07-24T18:45:00.003-04:00

The rafters continue to rise at 10 Harrison Ave. The builders were working through some tricky angles this week. We should see the gable take form next week. The sheathing that you see on the walls has not been cut away to show the three window openings. You can just see the wide headers for the windows sticking out above the plywood above the green pipe. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done on the walls!

Rafters Rise

2010-07-20T20:14:00.003-04:00

The lumber we were waiting for has come in and the rafters have started to rise. There were no rafters on the building when we were there at 9:00 this morning, but by the end of the day there were rafters at both ends of the building! Next comes the perpendicular gable facing the parking lot.

Framing Continues

2010-07-14T09:09:00.003-04:00

Framing has slowed a little bit because of a lack of properly sized lumber for the center beam of the rafters, but work continues. This is the framing for the south wall of the sanctuary. A book case will be in the middle of this wall; the door to the left will be the entrance to the basement and the door to the right (not yet moved into place) will be a closet.

Framing Rises

2010-07-12T21:21:00.003-04:00

The framing started to go up today! The shape of the building is now beginning to become apparent. Things will be happening quickly now.

Surprises Happen

2010-07-11T08:43:00.004-04:00

Who let that big beam in here? Every building project seems to have its unexpected developments and this is one of ours. The building committee had worked to create a basement deep enough that our tallest members wouldn't have to duck when retrieving things from it. We thought we had 7.5-foot clearance in the basement, but no one mentioned the depth of the big beam running down the center! The beam is obviously important for supporting the structure above and can't be changed, so we will just have to remember to duck when going downstairs. At least we will have a useable basement, which we didn't have before.

Floor Joists Spanning Foundation

2010-07-07T22:02:00.004-04:00

Its sure has been hot out there, but work is progressing steadily on the synagogue. The slab (basement floor) has now been poured and the foundation has been backfilled with dirt. Floor joists now span the foundation opening. More to come.

Foundation Poured, Water Service Connected

2010-07-01T07:43:00.003-04:00

The foundation has been poured and the water and sewer services have been connected to the city's pipes under Harrison Avenue. Last week Harrison Avenue was split in half as the street was dug up to access the pipes under the road. That's the street with a pile of dirt on it in the photo above. The neighbor's yard can be seen at the very bottom of the photograph. This week the floor of the basement, or "slab" is being poured over the pipes and crushed gravel which will direct the ground water away from the basement.

Foundation Forms Up

2010-06-16T09:53:00.003-04:00

The forms for the foundation were set up yesterday. Although the forms make the foundation look high, the base of the building will be at the same height as the previous building and will line up with the section in back.

Footings Poured

2010-06-13T10:11:00.004-04:00

The week ended with a nice achievement: the footings for the foundation were poured on Friday. During the week extensive work was done to stabilize the bank that is shared with our neighbor and to provide adequate drainage under the foundation, including buried drainage pipes and crushed stone.

Foundation Work Continues

2010-06-09T06:25:00.004-04:00

The contractor is continuing to dig the foundation. There is now some crushed stone in the bottom of the hole and large cement blocks are helping to stabilize the wall with the neighboring property. A sump pump is pumping water out of the bottom of the cellar hole. This rain is not helping things!

Foundation Being Dug

2010-06-06T08:45:00.003-04:00

The general contractor is now digging a new foundation for the building. The creation of a new foundation is one of the major reasons we undertook this project. The old foundation was falling apart and the basement was wet, causing deterioration and mold in the structure above it. Our reconstructed building wil have a full height basement and will employ various techniques to devert water away from it. As they dug a deeper hole for the new foundation, the contractor discovered what we had known all along: 10 Harrision Ave. is a very wet site. Note the water accumulating in the hole on what was a dry day on Friday. We are hopeful that the rain this weekend will not have a negative effect on the schedule for pouring concrete this coming week.

And Down It Comes

2010-06-01T21:08:00.005-04:00

The major demolition of the building occurred today. Much of the debris has already been removed from the site. It is sad to see the building in this situation, but it is the precursor to great new things. Pretty soon there will be forward progress.

Pre-Demolition Under Way

2010-05-27T22:02:00.006-04:00

Michael Lajeunesse and his subcontractors are now hard at work at the site. They are getting ready for the demolition of the front portion of the building. They have removed the cedar trees in front of the building

and are shoring up the back wall from inside the Daughly Gould room

Breaking Ground

2010-05-23T09:01:00.012-04:00

The congregation reached a milestone on Friday when ground was ceremoniously broken for the new project. About 15 members of the congregation were joined by seven elected representatives, a handful of neighbors, and WCAX-TV attended the 10 am event. Speakers included Eve Jacobs-Carnahan (president), Mary Hooper (mayor and state representative), Ann Cummings (state senator), and Barney Bloom (vice-president). Rabbis Tobie Weisman and Shana Margolin (members of the congregation) provided spiritual and religious context to the proceedings, relating the event to the week's Torah reading. Eve and Barney pushed a shovel into the earth and the congregation sang "Mazel Tov."

Click here to view the WCAX report.

Contractor Hired

2010-05-18T21:17:00.004-04:00

After a competitive bidding process, the Beth Jacob board has hired Lajeunesse Construction of East Barre, Vermont, to rebuild the synagogue. Today we held an introductory meeting with Mike Lajeunesse and about eight subcontractors at the building. Afterwards we met with the immediate neighbors to give them an idea of what we will be doing on the site. Some prep work will begin this week and then demolition will begin in earnest next week.

We will be having a short "ground breaking" ceremony at the building at 10 am on Friday. The mayor and many city counselors and elected officials are expected to attend. Since the ground is already broken (there is a building on the site, after all), we will ceremoniously remove the sign from the building to signal the impending change from the old to the rebuilt.

Packing Finished

2010-05-10T21:16:00.008-04:00

The process of packing up the synagogue has been underway for several weeks now and was finished in an intensive two hours of work Monday afternoon. As board members and a couple of volunteers drifted in, each was given an assignment by President Eve Jacobs-Carnahan. Barney and Paul loaded two vehicles with old prayer books to be buried at the cemetery tomorrow. Sue Steinhurst and Bev Shevis finished cleaning out the religious school closet (others had taken a crack at it earlier in the process). Marc Mihaly wrapped plastic around book shelves. Michele came in and finished cleaning out the front hall closet. Everyone pitched in to clean the place out.

The strangest things we found? Two Volvo headlights and a tube of toothpaste, all in the front hall closet!

Sue moves TV stand into the kitchen.

Eve and Bev move the reader's table into the community room.

Community Room with boxes in the center.

Sanctuary cleared out except for trash & recycling.

(Empty ark is to be moved to the Community Room by the contractor.)

Moving Forward

2010-05-07T17:08:00.004-04:00

A big sigh of relief was breathed at the synagogue this afternoon as the bids for our rebuilding project were being opened. We had put the project out to bid to five construction firms but in the end only two submitted bids, and both were within our budget for this phase of the project! Even with lots of calculating by building professionals beforehand, there is always a chance that a project like this will come in over budget and you'll have to go back to the drawing board before a single nail is pounded. Not so in this case. We had two very competitive bids from two very competent general contractors and both met our financial criteria. If everything goes as planned (and there is no guarantee that we won't encounter some unexpected circumstances) we should have some money left to set aside for the second phase of this project. The sooner we can rebuild the back part of the building the better for all involved, because it too has been strained by time and a poor foundation. The board will officially select a contractor for the first phase of the project on Monday night.

Moving Chairs

2010-05-02T20:20:00.005-04:00

The first thing to do before you rebuild a building is to empty everything out of the old building. That is the process we started today. It was hot and sticky in Montpelier today, but we loaded up 52 upholstered chairs, uncounted number of grey folding chairs, 1 small bookcase, and several pieces of framed art work from the walls and headed toward Middlesex. Our caravan of two pick up trucks, two Honda vans, and an aging Subaru wagon was held up briefly by the "All Species Day" parade marching through the middle of the capital city (only in Montpelier!). Some of our vehicles waited and watched the parade, others took a circuitous route around the parade, but we all arrived at Camp Mead at about the same time. We filled one side of a duplex cabin with chairs and headed home. Back at the synagogue others were packing boxes of books and religious school supplies. There is still much work to do before we will be ready for the contractors to start their work.

Leaning Walls, Time to Rebuild

2010-05-01T21:37:00.006-04:00

Beth Jacob was built as a residence, probably around 1890. In 1914 it was converted to a synagogue. At some point (perhaps in the 1940s) a shed in the back was converted to a community gathering space. In the 1930s a rabbi lived in a small apartment under the rafters above the sanctuary. Now the building is structurally unsound. The basement, which has been reinforced by concrete many times over the years, does not keep water out and does not hold the walls straight. The eastern wall is leaning inwards. We have not held services in the sanctuary for the past three winters after an engineer warned of possible collapse in heavy snow or heavy winds. Time to do something. Time to build a new building.