Stan Rolfe isn’t worried.

“It won’t be a problem,” he said, referring to the decision to close the upper balcony at Plymouth Congregational Church after Sunday’s storm.

“There’s plenty of the room in the front rows – (Pastor) Peter (Luckey) would probably like that,” Rolfe said, laughing.

The upper balcony was closed earlier this week after cracks were found in the interior walls beneath the two exterior brick towers toppled by the storm’s high winds.

“It’s purely precautionary,” said Rolfe, a church member and an engineering professor at Kansas University.

“After what happened, I expected to see cracks,” he said. “They’re not all that significant, there’s no imminent danger. We’re just being prudent – there’s no downside to roping off that part of the balcony.”

The three-story, red brick church, 925 Vt., was built in 1870. It’s eight spire-topped brick towers – four on the east side, four on the west – are well-known downtown landmarks.

Other churches also were damaged by Sunday’s storm, but none as badly as Plymouth.

The church’s six remaining towers, Rolfe said, have been inspected and “appear to be OK, but we want to get somebody up there to take another look.”

Plans call for replacing the fallen towers.

“I doubt we’ll be able to use the same material,” Rolfe said. “Some of the bricks were damaged and some of them looked a little rotted.”

According to church records, the bricks were mixed and fired on the original construction site. The church, which has one of the city’s largest congregations, is also Lawrence’s oldest, though the current structure replaced one built earlier that was burned by William Quantrill’s raiders.

The 135-year-old bricks and one of the wooden spires have been saved, said Nick Combs, an administrative assistant at the church.

“One of the spires survived completely intact,” Combs said. “The other one was shattered. It’ll have to be rebuilt.”

Combs said several woodworkers in the congregation have expressed interest in replicating the spire.

“We saved the molding so it can be copied,” he said.

The church’s rooftop air-conditioning units were knocked off their mounts. The roof, Combs said, was “60 percent damaged.”

“We’re waiting to hear from the people we have looking at it,” Combs said, “but it’ll probably need to be replaced.”

The church is insured for the damages, he said. The church has not yet received a cost estimate.