There’s a new copper cupola atop the old Elks Building in downtown Port Townsend.

David Hero, who co-owns the Silverwater Cafe, housed in the building, is “pretty much done” with the project, save for a few tweaks.

“I pretty much just finished it yesterday,” he said April 3. One of the final pieces was a copper obelisk placed in the center of the roof.

The previous cupola was made from tinned iron and was “rusted through and leaking rather badly,” necessitating replacement.

“I decided to replace it with copper because it’ll last longer,” Hero said.

Hero put up scaffolding in October and began tearing the old roof off that month.

Since then, he’s been “poking along,” as each little piece up there had to be handmade with lots of “fudging and bending” required to get the pieces into position.

Hero did the work himself. He tried to find somebody else to do the work, but no one could figure out how to do it.

So Hero put the skills he learned in college as an art major to use. Back in college, his expertise was in ceramics and metalwork.

“I’ve actually worked with metals a lot. I’ve never done anything this size before.”

Hero isn’t sure how old the old cupola was. He didn’t replace it during a 1996 renovation of the building, but thought that it might have been replaced in the 1950s. That indicates it was at least 75 years old.

Over a period of about 40 years, Hero expects the new copper roof to oxidize into a “leather brown color.” Later, the color should shift toward green hues.

Although the copper roof is new, the trim areas of the roof remain original – made of a type of iron that was probably installed in 1889 as an architectural design element.

There are still a few project details to be tended to, including tamping down the edges so the wind can’t get ahold of them and distort their shape. Bird control is to be added, and at the end of the month, Hero plans on tearing the scaffolding down.