ASAP Engineering

Central Congregational Church
Middleborough, MA

Middleborough’s Central Congregational Church, located at the corner of Webster Street and South Main Street, is an extraordinary timber-framed structure.

Built in 1848, the church is a classic New England design featuring massive timbers, some of which seem to be salvaged from earlier buildings, and an impressive independently supported steeple structure. An unfortunate Memorial Day fire destroyed most of the interior of the historic building, and caused extensive damage to the roof trusses and truss supports. However, much of the timber framing remains largely in tact due to its robust nature.
As the reconstruction project gets underway, our primary role as the engineer of record is to determine the extent of the structure that must be replaced and to design a replacement roof truss system. To this end, we are working closely with Neal Kidney of Alpha Construction, the general contractor for the project. Through collaboration with Saltonstall Architects, a full set of structural and architectural plans is being generated in order to capture as much of the original architectural detail as possible so that it can be replicated in the renovated building.