By Nancy Westlund
Herald staff

Workers’ lives touched as they uncover treasures at Cathedral

The task for workmen commissioned 117 years ago by a bishop who once mined gold was to build a great church for a newborn diocese and a city of promise.

Today a new crew of workers, uncovering the original splendor of the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, are discovering more than they had expected.

Their mission is the restoration of the Sacramento landmark built in the late 1880s and dedicated in 1889 by Bishop Patrick Manogue.

“Whatever it is — the fact that the cathedral is so old, so complex, or so full of surprises — one thing I can say about this project is it has a way of making people passionate about it,” said Father James Murphy, Cathedral rector.

Workers from Harbison Mahony Higgins Builders Inc., the Sacramento-based construction company working on the restoration, have the task of completing seismic retrofitting to meet current building codes while maintaining the cathedral’s historic and liturgical integrity.

Dave Higgins, general contractor with HMH, has taken the restoration project to heart, knowing that when it is completed, the building will be one of largest restored cathedrals west of the Mississippi.

“One of the more fascinating things you find is to go through the space above the ceiling in the attic and see the workmanship reminiscent of seeing a railroad trestle or mine shaft,” he said. “The technology and craftsmanship of the era was remarkable.”

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	Frank Taylor, a carpenter working on the restoration, made more than 100 crosses of square nails used when the cathedral was originally built, which he has given to visitors touring the project. Cathy Joyce/Herald photo
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For Frank Taylor, being a carpenter is both a trade and calling. As long as he can

remember, he has been building things. For a time in the 1980s he lived and worked as a carpenter on building projects in Holland and France. For the past 12 years he’s worked for HMH.

The job, he believes, can define a man.

“I look at it this way: Jesus was a carpenter,” Taylor said. “He had to be a carpenter before he was anything else, because he had to build a church.”

Being assigned to work on the cathedral is thrilling to Taylor, who is Catholic, because of the rich history within its soaring walls and because of something intangible he’s been experiencing on the job.

He recalled a moment, both moving and unforgettable, when the tabernacle was removed to protect it from construction work.

“Just to be so close to what holds the body of Christ was very touching to me,” he said.

Another time he was in the process of removing the nails that held together dilapidated catwalks built a century ago to provide access to the attic. Taylor remembers looking at the square nails he held in his hand and deciding to take them home to fashion them into a cross. It would be an anniversary gift for his wife, whose delight in the gift inspired him to begin giving the square nails to visitors touring the cathedral.

“We’re of no value if we don’t open our hearts to others,” he said. “Maybe the crosses will make people reflect on their own lives.”

In fact, the cathedral is not the only church project in the works for Taylor. He is also going to be one of the workers building a new church next spring for St. Joseph Parish in Lincoln, where he is a parishioner.

“I went to my boss and said I’ve never asked to go anywhere and have been glad to go where you send me, but I would really appreciate going to work on the Catholic church in Lincoln,” he said. “I just want to be a carpenter on the church.”

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Project manager Tim Spence’s job began in June 2002. He oversees the workforce and operates the master schedule at the site. Spence, the only non-Catholic in his family, which includes his wife, four sons, mother and mother-in-law, remembers their collective jubilation when he learned he would be working on the cathedral project.

“I feel that I’m here for a reason, that maybe there is something that has aligned me to this position,” said Spence, whose experience has taught him in the construction business so much is a matter of timing, about being available when a project comes up.

If there was any doubt in his mind that this project could impact him spiritually, it was dispelled in early August when Spence and his family attended the final Mass celebrated in the cathedral by Bishop William K. Weigand prior to its closure for restoration.

“It was a pretty powerful day,” he said. “I realized I was one of the people the church would be turned over to the following day...to make sure the church would be restored, that Mass would start again in the new church.”

Now, several months into a project that involves peeling back layers of paint from walls, pulling up flooring and getting to the original skin of the building, Spence has made some exceptional discoveries.

There was the first viewing of the huge redwood beams that support the roof, of the original wood floor cut from Douglas fir, and white granite mined in the Sierra — all reminders of a time when gold mining was a most lucrative vocation.

Both amazing and a bit mysterious was another day when a piece of a Mass schedule was found by a worker behind a cabinet in the sacristy. The discovery was made on the exact date the schedule had been published 70 years earlier.

“It’s like you’re standing inside of history,” Spence said. “There are feelings of respect, feelings of history, feelings that a lot of people have been in this cathedral over time, families showing their faith in this church.”

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After more than a year on the job as site superintendent, Roberto Marquez has developed a personal relationship with just about every nook and cranny of the cathedral. He has been directing the investigative work required to open up floors and walls, take paint samples, do structural testing, open the roof and dig into the footings. Through it all, Marquez has done some serious reflecting.

“We’re all here for a reason, I think, and mine is I’m going to take care of this place,” he said.

The youngest of eight children, Marquez’s family was deeply involved in the Catholic community in Mesa, Ariz., where they participated in the sacraments of their faith. Then just before his birth, the family moved to Sacramento.

“We didn’t have a vehicle and as I grew up visits to church became less frequent,” Marquez said. “I didn’t realize until recently how much I missed church.”

His renewal of faith began the day he heard that his company would be working on the cathedral restoration and he was being considered for the job. Marquez’s first call was to an aunt, “the hub of faith in the family.”

“She was elated and told me she thought I was chosen,” he said.

Then Marquez started going to work every morning at the cathedral, where he was surrounded by physical reminders of his faith, and by the staff at the rectory, many of whom spoke Spanish, bringing him back to something he had for a time lost.

“All the people here, their hearts are huge. It’s just infectious,” he said. “Being here makes me feel at home.”

When the church was still open, he began sitting in during some of the daily Masses. Soon going to noon Mass became part of his daily routine.

Marquez also made some lifestyle changes during the past year. A month after starting the job, he began a weight reduction program in which he has lost 102 pounds.

“I don’t know if there was a direct link, but I chose to better myself at that time. I want to be around for my grandkids and their kids,” he said.

Marquez said interesting discoveries continue to be made by the cathedral crew, including a hand-carved tobacco pipe left behind by workman decades ago and markings a woodworker engraved under a pew dated Dec.12, 1889.

“Every turn I take I’m jumping at the chance to open up a new area, to find things,” he said, feeling a connection with workers long ago who built the great church. “Maybe 50 years from now someone will be looking at what we are doing now.”

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