Our Lady still needs renovations; progress on historic church

Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church is making progress in restoring their chapel following the hurricanes that devastated Boca Grande last fall. Fr. Anthony Hewitt, Pastor of Our Lady of Mercy, is pleased with the progress they have made, given the large amount of damage that was sustained by the church.

“We had five feet of water inside the church,” Fr. Hewitt said. Even outside the building, where the electrical systems were housed in what were believed to be secure systems, the amount and duration of the flooding were too much. Today, those systems are on six-foot-high platforms.

From electrical systems to priceless pieces of art, the storms left almost everything damaged or destroyed.

The building is the design of F. Burrall Hoffman, the noted neoclassical architect best known for Villa Vizcaya in Miami. Since the storms hit in late September and early October, services have been held at the parish’s Family Life Center, completed just before Hurricane Ian hit the area in 2022. That building is higher than the old church and was designed to withstand powerful storms.

While that storm did serious roof damage to the church and its rectory, where Fr. Hewitt has his residence and office, the 2024 storms brought more water damage.

“If the water reaches them now, we’re all going to drown.” He knew it was not a joke, however.

Because of the sustained wind action, along with the flooding, water that was inside the church tended to splash onto all the surfaces, causing water damage even to items that were high above the flood level.

He was pleased that some of the antique chairs in the church were able to be saved, after cleaning the “grey muck” off of them. That muck came from sand washing in. Sea water, laden with sand and pollutants, left this sort of residue throughout the church, he said.

The church pews are in the process of being cleaned and restored. The tile floors have been scrubbed and repaired, along with the marble altar and the coquina shell base of the altar area. Coquina is a type of limestone made from shells and tends to have a white and pink hue to it, which had greyed over time in the church.

“The deep cleaning has restored the color of the original coquina floors,” Father said, showing his tendency to find the positive among the challenging.

“The HVAC replacement is complete,” he reported to parishioners via the parish web page, “with the outdoor units on much higher, more stable stands than prior to Milton. Most recently, the pews were removed for complete renovation. We are looking forward to the fine work of the restoration craftspersons to be complete and pews returned by June.”

This week, he noted that the June date is tentative, but that the floor tiles have been deep cleaned, re-grouted and restored to their condition prior to the storm — or better! The baseboards, which have been greatly damaged, have also been restored. The altar and other natural surfaces have been renovated and disinfected through deep cleaning.

A new organ is in the process of being built, he said, as he pointed out the old organ and keyboard in the middle of the empty area that once held the pews. They were waiting to be shipped off to the landfill, he said.

“An organ takes about four months to build,” he noted. He hopes to have it completed and delivered this summer.

The church is known for its collection of religious artwork. None of the art was lost in the storms, but almost all of it needs to be refurbished, especially the ones with gold leaf, Fr. Hewitt said. An art restoration expert in Naples is performing the work.