On December 3rd, seventeen seniors were accompanied to visit the restoration happening at New York City’s famed St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The students were met by Thomas Murphy and Erin Fisher from Deerpath Construction Corporation. The tour began outside on 51st Street, where students watched the façade cleaning taking place. The Cathedral was built of brick clad in marble, quarried in Massachusetts and upstate New York.
A worker demonstrated how a high powered sandblasting device is used in sections of the stone, to clean the façade from 50 years of soot and pollution. This extensive restoration has been going on since 2012, while St. Patrick’s has remained open to parishioners and thousands of tourists who visit the church daily.
