Grace Episcopal Church Bell Tower - Paducah, Kentucky
Posted by: 
BruceS
N 37° 05.057 W 088° 36.223
16S E 357460 N 4105425
Dominant bell tower on historic Episcopal Church in Paducah, Kentucky.
Waymark Code: WM6DDY
Location: Kentucky, United States
Date Posted: 05/17/2009
Views: 1
From the church's National Register Nomination Form:
"The great southwest tower is a landmark of downtown Paducah . Its strongly vertical upper stories, with its polychrome roof rising above the steep diapered roof of the nave, can be seen from a considerable distance, even with several highrise office buildings nearby. The elongated pyramidal roof of the tower has a saddle-ridge on an east-west axis. '(One wonders whether there was not originally cresting rather than the present large plain cross.) The surface, which flares out slightly at the base, has three horizontal bands of lighter slate, divided by six-pointed stars. Both the main roof of the church and the hipped dormer roofs sport tile diapering, a rare survival. On the sides, the clerestory dormers alleviate the change in slope between nave and aisles. The prominent gabled transepts balance the emphasis on the west end.
Each side of the tower has two tall recessed arches linking the over-scaled upper two stories. The top story is an open belfry; there are smaller diamond-paned lancets set in the bottoms of the recessed arches, which are linked by stone capitals perhaps Romanesque rather than Gothic in character at the impost level. The top openings have still-further recessed frames, creating a layered effect repeated in the main entrances within the porch below. There is a brick pointed-arch cornice on corbels under the eaves of the tower roof. The overall effect of the tower is very grand indeed."