The iconic symbol of St. Michael’s College is back on the school’s Colchester, Vermont campus — after more than a year of restoration work and preparation for its next chapter.
Expert crane operators, carpenters, and an excavation crew guided a more than two-ton piece of history to its new home Tuesday.
“I’m calm because I have such a good ground crew,” crane operator Dave Demag of Demag Riggers and Crane Service said after carefully guiding a more than 100-year-old architectural landmark through the campus.
The cupola was removed last year from the top of Founders Hall — the original building at St. Michael’s College— before the structure was demolished. Founders had been deemed too far beyond repair to keep, but the cupola was way too precious to trash, campus leaders said in May of 2021.
"For a long, long time, it’s been kind of the iconic symbol of Saint Michael’s," Father David Theroux told NECN & NBC10 Boston, explaining the cupola has become far more than an ornament atop a building.
Today, images of the cupola appear on banners, on stone gates, on letterhead, and more. It’s really the visual identity of the small school, Theroux noted.
Because of that almost celebrity stature, Tuesday’s reinstallation turned heads as the more than century-old landmark slowly made its way from a flatbed back from the shop where it had been restored, to a big crane, then a smaller rig that hauled it to a prominent spot on the campus green.
"Putting it on the central part of the campus is going to be a nice little token to the past, I suppose," Theroux observed.
The plan is to create a sort of amphitheater around the cupola, explained Joel Ribout, the SMC facilities director.
"Especially with COVID, everybody wanted to have things outdoors," Ribout noted, adding that the area will be served by WiFi so professors can use it as an outdoor classroom and students can study or hang out by the recognizable cupola.
"It’s a big part of our history and we’re glad to have it back," Ribout said.
When NECN & NBC10 Boston first reported on the cupola’s removal from Founders, the college had expected to reinstall it on green space along Route 15. The original plan was to place the cupola directly beneath where it had stood atop Founders, campus spokespeople said at the time.
However, the change of plans to locate the cupola in a quieter place at the center of campus was aimed at allowing it to get more use and become a more vibrant community gathering place, Ribout explained.
"It’s back, so it’s exciting," said SMC student activities director Kerri Leach, who stopped by the project Tuesday to photograph the work.
While several weeks of work are left, including installing sod and a new copper roof and refurbished cross on the cupola, the St. Mike’s project is proof what’s old really is new again.
