The Brown Church Story
January 2026
Bergeron Technical has been working with the Brown Church for several years, having started our efforts before Covid and continuing into 2026. During those years the project path has taken numerous twists and turns as at first, Covid threw a wrench into most efforts and then flooding that occurred in December of 2023 almost finished the church. “Almost” is the operative word as the team at the Brown Church will not be held down, at least not for long, and they were back up and running very quickly. After the flooding, the initial efforts were to bring what had been a functioning building, although one in need of improvements and modernization, back to working condition.
To date the Brown Church team has moved the food pantry to a new location in the building, a location that is higher in terms of flood elevation than it had been before. Then, BTS led the efforts to replace one quite old boiler that had provided hydronic heating to much of the building along with replacing an ancient (Smithsonian ancient) hot-air furnace that had provided forced hot-air heating to the sanctuary. Before the boiler was replaced, the BTS team, mostly Kate, designed a wonderful new mechanical system mezzanine which places the new boilers well above the flood levels the church experienced in 2023. The mezzanine was constructed by the carpentry team from RWN Property Services of Conway with the boilers installed by Dan Gaynor of Gaynor Plumbing and Heating, also of Conway. In order to access the mezzanine Kate designed a “ships ladder” which the codes allow for access to unique building areas such as this. Her design needed handrails for both safety and code compliance, which brought the talented team at Mt. Washington Valley Fabrication into the mix. They fabricated the handrails with the installation being done by the RWN team. Lastly, no project such as this can happen without electrical work which at the Brown Church and at many BTS projects, is done by DW Electrical Contractors, Inc. The boilers have been functioning flawlessly for more than a year, bringing heat to most of the church, and doing so using modern energy efficient and environmentally improved equipment. (Photo to the right)
After the boiler room and associated equipment, the food pantry, and too many yards of new flooring (at the lower level) to think about we have to discuss what is coming next.
Just recently, Gaynor Plumbing and Heating teamed up with DW Electric to bring functional yet somewhat temporary heating back to the Sanctuary. The Sanctuary heat, for the immediate future, is provided by three Rinnai propane-fueled “energy saver” direct-vent heaters. These were installed such that they’ll provide adequate heat to keep the sanctuary from suffering further cold-weather deterioration yet our design for the to-be-improved sanctuary will keep them in this space. The future for the sanctuary will see this space first stripped down to the studs, all hazardous materials (lead and asbestos) abated and then brought back to a wonderful space using appropriate electrical, heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and finishes. Essentially it is time to modernize the sanctuary, interestingly a project that should have taken place in the early 2000’s but someone greater than all of us had other plans. Please see the BTS plan for the updated sanctuary by clicking here.
If you are interested in helping the church by donating some funds for this project please contact them at [email protected] or calling (603) 447-3851 or directly online by clicking here. A donation of any amount will be greatly appreciated!
