Take my steeple -- please!
For the sake of Robert Claflin's marriage, someone needs to buy the old church steeple sitting on his front lawn.
As tall as a three-story building and weighing as much as a station wagon, the steeple has been there since Claflin salvaged it three years ago. And Gail Claflin wants it to go.
``I'm sick of it," she said, looking at it from her living room window. ``How many people do you know that have this on their front lawn? I don't know anybody."
Robert Claflin brought the steeple home to his wife one morning after learning that his church, First Congregational in Shrewsbury , had no plans for it. The big white church on the town common had replaced its old steeple with a fiberglass replica that doubled as a cellphone tower.
On the day of the switch, Claflin said he couldn't bear to see the steeple scrapped. He had been baptized and married under it. Although it was not the original 1807 steeple (that one blew off in a hurricane), it was only 68 years old and in good condition. He cut a deal with the church: If they couldn't find a home for it within a year, he would keep it.
``I didn't have the heart to cut it up," said Claflin, 68, a retired supervisor at the former Norton Co. in Worcester. ``It's just too much history."
A flatbed truck hauled the steeple to Claflin's house on Main Street the same day. A crane lifted it onto the lawn. Gail Claflin learned of her husband's acquisition from friends and neighbors who warned her.
``I started getting calls," she said. ``Traffic was backed up. Then the neighbors all came over and thought it was great. I said, `Would you like it?' "
In the years since, there has been just one prospective buyer -- a church in Maine. The Rev. Kathi Smith, a former pastor at Gardiner Congregational Church outside Augusta, heard about the Claflins' steeple from a relative.
She visited to see it and thought it would be a good fit. But her 51-member congregation ultimately voted down the purchase because it would have been too expensive, she said.
Steven B. Curtis, a Winchendon steeplejack , said installing a steeple can cost between $20,000 and $40,000. More than the cost, the difficulty is finding the right buyer. The market for used steeples is slow, even in New England.
``He can keep it in his yard and decorate it like a Christmas tree," Curtis suggested.
That does not sit well with Gail Claflin. Drivers passing by already pull in to her yard to view the steeple. Occasionally she sees cameras flashing. Grass has sprouted up near its base.
Claflin, a collector of antique cars and toys, said he plans to post the steeple on
``I don't think it looks that bad," he said.
Megan Woolhouse can be reached at 508-820-4236 or woolhouse@globe.com. 
