Arson damage
dooms historic chapel

By William Kenny
Times Staff Writer

With Friday’s postponement of his criminal sentencing, the future of the young man who torched the Eden Hall chapel in Fluehr Park last year is still undetermined.
But the sad fate of the historic old building now seems all too clear to those who held out hope of protecting the Gothic-revival landmark from further decline, or even restoring it to its former glory.
The descendants of the late Joseph C. Fluehr Sr. — namesake of the 62-acre city park bounded by Torresdale Avenue, Grant Avenue and Convent Lane in East Torresdale — have ended their efforts to build a preservation fund for Eden Hall, citing the overwhelming costs of the project.
A three-alarm fire set by Bustleton resident Nicholas Lawrence, then 19, and some juvenile accomplices inside the vacant 158-year-old chapel last July 8 ended any hope of a restoration project, according to Joseph C. Fluehr Jr.
A job that might have cost several hundred thousand dollars skyrocketed into the multimillion-dollar range because of the heavy structural damage. And that’s just to stabilize the site, which is now fully exposed to the elements.
"The building is so unstable, even to get people to go in there and work would be a problem," Fluehr said. "We were approaching two million (dollars) just to stabilize it. We would have had to put a whole new building over it."
"The roof, half of it isn’t there," added Barry Bessler, chief of staff for the Fairmount Park Commission.
"Every day the structure is further compromised. This is the trouble we have with the park (system). To do an accurate restoration is very expensive. And if a building has historical significance, that’s how it has to be restored. The opportunity or ability to do that is difficult for non-profits or the government to undertake."
Last spring, the Fluehr family announced the creation of a non-profit organization to raise money for the Eden Hall project. The initial goal was to assess the long-ignored chapel to plan out a reasonable set of expectations.
The chapel was built in 1849 by the Society of the Sacred Heart sisters, who ran an elite boarding school for girls on the property until 1969, when economic conditions prompted the nuns to leave the site.
The city then leased it and eventually purchased it. Joseph C. Fluehr Sr., a prominent East Torresdale resident and local real estate professional, led efforts in the 1970s to prevent large-scale residential development on the site.
It instead became a city park in 1976 and was named after Fluehr Sr. in 1985.
The Eden Hall school included numerous other buildings that were mostly destroyed by fires, most notably a large blaze in 1979.
But the three-story chapel — which measured 35 feet by 45 feet and was designed by English architect Frank Wils and financed largely by Francis Drexel, father of St. Katharine Drexel — survived, despite a near-constant threat of vandalism.
The July 8 fire was set in two places, according to a fire marshal’s testimony at Lawrence’s preliminary hearing. Lawrence’s new sentencing date is May 24.
Lawrence’s co-defendants, who have not been named publicly because they are underage, pleaded guilty in the case and were sentenced to financial restitution and community service, according to Fluehr Jr., who has assisted law enforcement with information about the building’s condition prior to the fire.
Investigators believe the arsonists breached security fencing and a boarded window, then used vodka to ignite one fire in the basement and fuel from an overturned generator to light a second spot on the first floor. The generator belonged to workers who were assessing restoration prospects at the time.
The ensuing inferno forced about 100 firefighters and 28 pieces of city fire equipment into action. It took two hours for them to declare it under control shortly before 2 a.m. on July 9.
The heaviest fire damage was in the wooden rafters supporting the slate roof, although the stone walls, floor and pews were generally spared from flames. Smoke and water were everywhere, however.
The city self-insured the property, so the park commission was not eligible for outside reimbursement.
"Money was a big issue even before the fire," Fluehr Jr. said. "But when we’re continually being harassed by vandalism . . . .
"It wasn’t just (a matter of) fixing the building, it was being constantly at risk. We thought we had a good effort going, but . . . ."
The park commission had submitted applications to have the site listed on national and state historic landmark registries, but the process was not complete. Even with a designation, however, the site would have been eligible for only a fraction of the expected restoration costs in public funding, about $100,000.
"I still get reports of kids breaking into the place, or what’s left of it," Bessler noted. "To me, that’s unfathomable. It’s a very dangerous place at this point."
The only reasonable outcome seems to be demolition, they say. But the park commission doesn’t even have enough money for that at the moment.
"The cost of demolishing this structure, if we ultimately decide to go that way . . . which is the way we’re leaning right now . . . the cost of that is going to be extraordinary," Bessler said.
There is no timetable for that. The commission thinks that some elements of the chapel might be salvable and reusable, such as the stone building blocks, façade elements and the Tiffany stained-glass windows that had been removed and placed in storage prior to the fire.
"Unfortunately, I think we’re sort of delaying the inevitable," Bessler said. ••
Reporter William Kenny can be reached at 215-354-3031 or bkenny@phillynews.com