The spire was the pointed top of the church. A needle of stone or wood or copper that aimed at the sky and said this building has something to say to God. The spire was the tallest thing on the block before the skyscraper. You could see Saint Mark's from ten blocks away. The spire was the building's index finger pointing up.

The spire had a lightning rod. Benjamin Franklin put a rod on a kite and then somebody put a rod on a spire and the spire stopped burning down. Before the rod the spire caught fire every ten years because the tallest thing on the block is the first thing the lightning hits. The spire was brave and stupid and the lightning rod made it brave and smart. The spire attracted the storm and the rod gave the storm a path to the ground. The spire said come at me. The rod said I know what to do with you.

The copper spire turned green. The copper oxidized and the green was the color of time. A new copper spire was bright as a penny and in twenty years it was green and in a hundred years it was the color of the Statue of Liberty. The green said this building has been here long enough to change color. The aluminum spire does not change color. The aluminum stays the same and looking the same for a hundred years is not a virtue. It is a refusal to participate.

You could hear the bells from the spire. The bells hung inside the spire and the bell ringer pulled the rope and the sound went out in every direction and the whole neighborhood knew what time it was and whether somebody was getting married or somebody was dead. The spire was the neighborhood's speaker system. The spire broadcast without electricity. The cell tower broadcasts without beauty. One of those is a trade and the other is a theft.

They do not build spires anymore. The zoning code says how tall you can build and the engineer says how much the spire weighs and the accountant says how much the spire costs and between the three of them the spire loses. The skyline used to have points. Now the skyline has flat tops. A city of flat tops is a city that stopped reaching. The spire was the building's ambition made visible. The flat roof is the building's ambition made practical. Ambition without a point is just height.

See also: Chimney Cap, Cupola