St. Philip Church was erected in 1929 to replace the original church which was destroyed by a fire.  The building was designed by a local architect on beautiful linen drawings which have been preserved to this day.  These drawings have been instrumental in developing a scheme to improve the church’s heating and cooling system while preserving its beautiful and sacred structure. 

The infrastructure of the church represents challenges as unique as its history.  The church has no basement or mechanical room.  Steam was supplied from a district steam main in Cherry Street.  When the district heating system was abandoned in the 1950s, steam was re-piped from a coal boiler in the adjacent high school.  In 1971, the coal boilers were replaced with new gas-fired boilers located in a new mechanical room at the east end of the high school.  Those boilers continue to heat the church today though pipes located in a tunnel along each side of the nave of the church.  The steam piping feeds fin-tube radiators beneath each window of the church in a hidden pocket of the wall.

Despite the care necessary to accomplish nearly 100 years of service, the fin-tube radiators and steam piping located throughout the church and school continue to deteriorate and fail.  Old sections of rotted pipe and convectors have been cut out and capped in order to preserve the remaining system.  Each section of fin tube removed has left the buildings with less heat and more maintenance. 

An innovative scheme has been developed to replace the existing heating equipment, piping, and boilers with a new system which will heat (and eventually cool) St. Philip for the next century.  The new system will utilize a hydronic loop routed through the same tunnel, and new “induction units” will be tucked and hidden neatly into the plaster wall pockets where the fin-tube radiators are today.  The hydronic loop will be served by high-efficiency hot water boilers located in the parish center to deliver hot water to the new units in the winter.  And the same loop will eventually deliver chilled water in the summer to cool the church.  The new equipment will be quiet, hidden, and efficient.

Our parish has been blessed with caring, generous families for over a century.  Please prayerfully consider helping us improve and restore St. Philip Church so that our parish family may continue to enjoy St. Philip for generations to come.

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