Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1911-09-26

got away lucky. He vas superintend-
ing the mason work and hearing the
crash coming, jumped under the bal
cony support and saved himself.
Jos. Hildensperger and son had
just left the building few minutes
previously, and were carrying a tim
ber toward the entrance, when the
mass of brick and lumber came down.
Jos. Ford, residing at 523 Fulton
street, city, was in the building work
ing at carpenter work. When he
heard the cracking of timbers he
ran out of the building and escaped
with slight injuries.
The building had progressed to that
stage where the walls had been COM
pleted and the rough roof put on; the
two steeples on the west side and the
dome on the east side were in process
of erection. OF course no work had
been done toward finishing the inter
ior. AS it stands today it is spec
tacle which reminds one of the de-
structive forces of an earthquake or
high explosive. Portions of the
walls are caved in and the
south and east walls are badly
cracked and are leaning outward.
Much of the work will necessarily
have to be reconstructed, and
it will mean a loss of thousands of
dollars to someone, as well as
great delay in getting the
job completed. The congregation
had been planning on getting the use
of the building some time during the
winter or early spring, but as to when
the structure will be completed is
now a problematical estimate.
The sum of $4,000 had been raised
for the construction of this editice,
and a building was planned which
when colnpleted will be one of the
largest and most handsome church
structures in the city. Its design is
highly ornamental and modern. The
plans were drawn by Anton DOhmer,
a Milwaukee architect, and the work
of construction is being carried on
by Marx Bros, a Milwaukee firm of
contractors. Building operations
were started early last spring, the
corner stone was laid during the sum-
mer, and the work was progressing
nicely when the accident occurred.
Following the accident ropes were
secured and the streets leading to
the building were closed to access, be-
cause of the unsafe condition of some
of the walls. A policeman has been
on duty there since, to keep curious
people out of the building.
Alter the death of John Wachal, a
coroner's jury was drawn, the, follow
ing well known gentlemen being Sc
lected: W. W. Albers, John Man
son, Robt. Schmidt, V. A. Anderson,
Henry Smith and Geo. Steltz. The
jury visited the basement after the
accident, viewed the ruins, took
some testimony, and then adjourned
until the following day to await the
arrival from Milwaukee of the archi-
tect, members of the contracting firm
and architectural experts. The TAX
ing of testimony was begun again
Friday morning at ten o'clock. Mem
bers of the contracting firm, the
architect, the consulting engineer,
foremen and workmen on the job,
told of matters which they thought
might have entered into the wreck
of the building. The testimony
showed that the piers supporting the
dome had been made even more mas
sive than plans called for. Changes
had also been ordered made in
the steel trusses to give them more
strength. The piers were completed
in June, but some of the evidence
tended to show that the cement had
not properly set, and that only a
week prior to the accident crack
had been discovered in one of them,
but this it was thought did not
materially effect the strength of the
pier. 1t was stated that better