The roof of an old cistern collapsed on the north side of the church building sometime between the evening of Monday, April 25th and the morning of Tuesday, April 26th. No one knew it was there, until it appeared on that Tuesday after Easter.
During the annual Easter Egg Hunt (only a few days before) children had been running over that exact spot!
The first thing to do was to surround it with a fence, to prevent the curious from falling in -- no one knew how stable -- or unstable -- the edges of the hole might have been.
It is likely that the recent heavy rains caused the cistern roof to weaken. (Interestingly enough, the nearby basement of the church was completely dry.)
The depth was measured to be 9 feet.
There was a pipe entering the cistern from the north, probably from a farm house that once stood where the Parish House currently stands.
Research done for the 100th anniversary celebration had revealed that no buildings had stood on the property at the corner of 11th and Harrison for 50 years prior to the church's construction. Therefore, the cistern probably dated from the 1850s.
There may have been some interesting artifacts on the bottom of the cistern, but we'll never know for sure, because for safety's sake the cistern was soon filled. It took about 30 tons of stone to do the job.
After the stone has settled, it will be covered again with top soil, and grass re-planted over the spot.
