SOUTHAMPTON—A project to raise the elevation of Trinity Episcopal Church, in the Vincentown section of Southampton Township, is now complete with the church open again for Sunday services.
“I truly think it fair to say that our actions have allowed the church to exist for another hundred plus years,” declared Trinity Property Manager Ed Tenthoff. “With the increase in drastic weather, it would have been only a matter of time until serious damage occurred to the church without its elevation.”
The church, adjacent to the South Branch of the Rancocas Creek on Mill Street, reopened on Aug. 24, according to Tenthoff, after being raised by 4 feet, a project that started on Jan. 6 of this year.
When this newspaper last reported on the project, the historic, 154-year-old church had been temporarily raised some 9 feet in the air by Audubon Helical Piers, which was working to screw in 86 helical piers into the ground up to 20 feet to make way for the higher elevation.
“The biggest protection is that we are 4 feet higher than we had been before,” Tenthoff told this newspaper. “We no longer have a crawl space to hold water as the new crawl space is above the outside ground level.”
Trinity Church first flooded back on July 12-13, 2004, when over 13 inches of rain fell in portions of Central Burlington County, causing an upstream dam on the Rancocas to fail, subsequently sending a wall of water downstream, including to Vincentown.
Church Warden Bob Smith previously said Trinity had over four feet of water inundation in the church at the time, and even more in its attached parish hall, leading to “catastrophic damage with floors and pews being twisted and warped.”
The Rancocas has since flooded several more times, and in 2019, during the last major flood on the creek, the parish hall took on about 18 inches of water, Smith recounted.
The church itself, Tenthoff pointed out this past week, has not changed at all as a result of the project, rather “it is simply higher.”
“It feels wonderful, like returning home,” said Tenthoff in reacting to the improvements, adding, “We welcome the community every Sunday for service, or just to see the church.”
Tenthoff added that he and other church officers “hope to see an increase in church attendance,” observing they “have already seen some new members who have followed the rising of the church” during the last ten months.
And the project, he noted, not only helped to bring the congregation closer together, but also the church closer together with the community at large.
“There were many community members who watched the elevation and took pictures,” Tenthoff said. “The Vincentown United Methodist Church invited us to hold services in their church just a short distance away for the full eight months we were closed. That was wonderful and we all made new friends.”
While Audubon Helical Piers carried out the majority of the project, it was conceptualized by Scope Engineering, a firm that specializes in elevation projects. Others were also involved.
“We were very fortunate in selecting a wonderful group of contractors who worked well together and, except for one, did a wonderful job and protected the church and property and cleaned up after themselves,” Tenthoff declared.
The church property manager recognized that the project cost has totaled “hundreds of thousands of dollars,” but added, “We have been blessed over the years with generous parishioners who have donated money.”
That being said, Tenthoff asserted, “We could still use financial support to help us to continue our charitable efforts.”
Trinity Church has maintained a GoFundMe account and the church warden is directing the public to www.trinityvincentown.org, which has instructions on how to contribute to this “monumental project.”
You can also send a check payable to Trinity Church, and in doing so, include “Flood” in the memo field. The church’s mailing address is P.O. Box 2270, Southampton, NJ, 08088.
Tenthoff’s recommendation for other churches or organizations finding themselves in a flood plain or having to deal with repeated flooding, and may now be considering following in the footsteps of Trinity: “If you have the financing, go for it.”
“Just be prepared for a lot of work and more time than you expect,” he cautioned.
For those wanting to attend a service at the church built in 1871, you can do so on Sundays at 10 a.m., 18 Mill Street.
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