The Canton Church is one of the few surviving buildings moved from the town of Canton before it was flooded by the construction of the Canyon Ferry Dam in 1952.  After decades of neglect, a dedicated group of local people around Townsend launched a grass roots preservation effort.  Many of them have direct family ties dating back to the founding of the church in 1872.  With simple planning means we divided the restoration into 4 prioritized phases: 1) steeple restoration, 2) roofing and siding, 3) window and door restoration and 4) interior restoration.  Phase 1 required extensive architectural investigation, planning and documentation.  The Canton Church is now available for functions and open to the public as volunteer programming and staffing allow.
In order to replace the rotten structural timbers of the steeple, it was necessary to lift the top of the steeple off of the building, set it aside for its own restoration, and re-install it.  Detailed determinations had to be made before and during the process of construction.  A distinct achievement is the budget.  With a compilation of donated time, services, materials and around $20,000 we achieved a restoration of the steeple which would normally have been well over $50,000.