Renovation is underway on downtown Birmingham's historical Catholic Cathedral of St. Paul

Contact: Janet Tedford
Office: 205.322.7726
Email: janet@goldenconstruction.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Birmingham, Ala., Nov. 29, 2005 - Golden & Associates Construction, LLC began earlier this month renovating the Cathedral of St. Paul Catholic Life Center located on the corner of 22nd Street and Third Avenue North in downtown Birmingham. The $4.3 million dollar project will include renovating the former school building into a family life center, adding a new bell tower, and transforming the concrete parking area into a courtyard, playground, and columbarium area. The project is slated to be complete in July 2006. Ryan Ferris is the project manager and Jeff Higginbotham is the superintendent. ArchitectureWorks is the project architect firm.

Family Life Center
St. Paul's Catholic School, built in 1925, was in service until 2002. The building is being renovated into a family life center to accommodate the Parish School of Religion and other catechetical programs and social outreach activities. The center will also provide parish meeting rooms and space for social gatherings. The 23,000 sq ft renovation covers the entire three floors of the building. Highlights of the renovation will include adding three 15-foot tall windows to the east side of the auditorium, installing an elevator and adding other accessibility options, and renovating the building's kitchen and restroom facilities.

Beautification of Grounds
The current concrete parking area, located in the middle of the church's campus, will be transformed into a 21,000 sq ft lowered courtyard with paving and landscaping and will also include a playground, columbarium, and fountain. 
The area will have a burial plot reserved with the ultimate intentions to move the body of Father James E. Coyle from Elmwood Cemetery to the cathedral. Father Coyle was assassinated on August 11, 1921 by an enraged minister for marrying his daughter to a Puerto Rican man. He was shot on the front steps of the rectory just two hours after the marriage had taken place.

Bell Tower
A 68-foot brick bell tower will be added to the south corner of the family life center. The tower will extend above the family lifer center and will house eight changing bells that will be imported from Whitechapel, England. The bells will be the only set like this in Alabama.

The manufacturer of the bells, Whitechapel Bell Foundry, established in the 13th century, also cast the famous Liberty Bell as well as the Great Bell of Westminster commonly know as “Big Ben.”

Additional Information
The Cathedral of St. Paul was founded in 1872 and was originally a small, wood-frame church located on a lot where the current Jefferson County courthouse sits. The current brick building was built in 1890 for $75,000 ($1.5 million in 2005 dollars), and dedicated in 1893. 

Today, the church has 1500 parishioners or 820 families and is the Mother Church of the Diocese of Birmingham in Alabama.

The Very Reverend Richard E. Donohoe has been St. Paul's Rector since July 2001. Donohoe says, “As we have begun construction and demolition, we are proud of preserving one of the more beautiful buildings in Birmingham.” 

The church raised money for the construction project through their Preserve-Prepare-Proclaim capital campaign.