About the Fire

1

April 10, 2011

ANNIVERSARY SUNDAY

Inaugural Sesquicentennial

Worship Service Program

honoring CHPC ministry

during 1961-2011

1984: Featuring Chris Smith and Dudley Brown in a dramatic reading about the fire

Chris Smith: “I joined the church I believe in 1984, the year of the fire. I last graced the CHPC stage in an adaptation of “A Simpson Family Christmas,” in the role of Marge. Best moment in CHPC theatrical history: Mary Rush’s rendition of Jimmy Mack, by Martha & The Vandellas, for the departure of interim pastor Jim McDonald in 2003.”

Dudley Brown: Dudley Brown joined CHPC in 1959. Dudley has had a historic career as a professional designer specializing in historic preservation. His expertise and longstanding membership in the church, as well as dedication to maintaining the integrity of the church building, is legendary.

Placard w/”1984” held aloft by Caroline Kaleda

The dialogue below is presented as written, not as given:

Chris: It was one of those spring storms that seemed to light up the night over the entire Washington region. It was cold too. And it was Friday, the 13th, April 13th, 1984. It was also Good Friday. The lightning hit the metal frame on the attic window (or dormer)at the west end of the church.

Dudley: I was at home in the English basement kitchen of our Victorian row house, diagonally across the street from the church at 120 Fourth Street, SE. My aunt, Ruth Spangler (she was in Florida) and I were accustomed to the roar of police cars and fire engines as they roared past our house and through the stop lights at Independence Avenue. Whirling red lights in our dining room windows were not unfamiliar.

Chris:Fire broke out and was noticed by Don Huff, a homeless man who was passingby. He had had joined the church as a member and was attending regularly. He was able to call the fire department from a nearby pay phone. Without his assistance the damage to the building would have been much greater.

Dudley: I had been subjected to surgery on my right foot that afternoon and that foot was heavily bandaged. I had an open sandal on the left foot. For me to be at home on a Friday night was most unusual, but so I was. Suddenly there was a great flash of lightening and a huge thunderclap. I remember saying to myself ….”That was a close one”. It seems that within seconds there was the roar of sirens and fire trucks in front of our house. What was not familiar were the sirens and flashing lights which this time did not speed by our windows. No jacket, nor shoes, I went out to the street and heard people hollering, “It’s the church, it’s the church!”

Chris:It was a three alarm blaze and when fire fighters arrived they were able to get the fire under control in 36 minutes.

Dudley: With no jacket, no shoes and a bandaged foot, I ran across the street to see the firemen with their big axes ready to chop down the main entrance doors (there were no glass panels in those days). I screamed “Don’t chop down the doors, don’t chop don’t chop down the doors, I have the keys!” I ran back to our house, grabbed the church keys from our key board and ran back to the church to unlock the big doors with all the firemen pressing against me. The doors opened and jillions of firemen so it seemed, dragging their hoses went up both sets of front stairs. There was no carpeting on the stairs in those days, just the ugly vinyl treads like we still have on the back stair hall.

Chris:To allow the heat to escape the fire fighters chopped holes in the roof. Nearly 1/3 of the roof was lost. The next step they took was to raise their axes to the stained glass windows.

Dudley: Up the stairs we ran to see firemen hoses, axes and wall to wall calamity. I will never forget how the sanctuary looked with no lights on. The stained glass windows glowed from the street lights. The heavy black cloud of smoke filled the room halfway down from the ceiling. Don Allen came running in from the A Street manse as I screamed again, “don’t break the windows, don’t break the windows, Don you take one side and I’ll take the other. We got all the windows open with the firemen running in every direction. Back to the left staircase, to the balcony, I led the firemen. As we ran up the stairs, the density of the smoke made it almost impossible to breathe so down on the stomach I went and crawled up the stairs so that I could show the firemen the ladder to the church attic.

Chris:The DC fire department did a quick job of controlling the blaze but it came at a cost. The water used on the fire did substantial damage to the sanctuary ceiling, pews, chancel area, organ, the first floor classrooms and the basement kitchen.

Dudley: I slid backwards down the stairs, ran out the front door and around to the Independence Avenue side to the rear of the building. There, looking up, I saw the flames running all along the rear cornice and devouring the single dormer window of the attic. A note of historic, architectural detail, when the church was “modernized” with the Eastern Presbyterian Church from the north end of StantonPark, the attic dormer was retrofitted with a stylistically inappropriate, double steel casement window. It was that steel window which the lightning struck. After the fire was out, not a single fragment of that steel window was ever found. The historic wooden gothic sash which is now in the dormer had at that time been removed and we found it in the front tower of the church building.

Immediately after seeing the cornice on fire, I ran back to the front entrance and up into the sanctuary again. How we ever got the sanctuary lanterns turned on remains a mystery, but we did, and they stayed on throughout the fire. The dense black smoke had abated as the firemen deluged the building from the bank parking lot.

Chris:Church members were allowed to enter the church.

Dudley: I could show the exact spot under the balcony, to the left of the center door to the sanctuary where I was standing when Jack Chase ran in. By this time, the fire was on the 11:00 o’clock news, so members and friends came from everywhere. I remember specifically Chris Smith, Gene Larkin and Joe Beeman. Jack and I stood side by side when the first big slab of plaster fell on the altar (which is now in the fellowship hall) smashing the plate glass panel to smithereens.

Church members were everywhere, I remember Joe Beeman, such a big man as he was, gathering up the hymnals, pushing pianos around (there were two upright instruments in the fellowship hall), shoveling out the water from fellowship hall through the front doors. The fire was finally reported to be out about 2:30 Saturday morning as I recall now. We swept, shoveled and carried on until virtual exhaustion. I stumbled home across the street, still shoeless sometime about then.

Chris:Very tired church members started trickling home early that morning.

Dudley: Everybody helped with the extraordinary adventure. I remember going back upstairs to sanctuary with Jack at the time the fire was reported to be out, and again we stood in the same place under the balcony looking at the dripping wet charred chancel and ceiling and said to each other, “we will rebuild it, we will rebuild it, we will redesign this room and we will rebuild it”.

Chris:The Session established a Fire Task Force to oversee the entire restoration project led by Bob Mantel with Jack Chase, and Dudley Brown. Dudley has had a historic career as a professional designer specializing in historic preservation. His expertise and longstanding membership in the church,as well as dedication to maintaining the integrity of the church building, is legendary.

Dudley: At the time of the fire, the new fabric panels which now flank the center panel of the chancel were ugly vertical, oak, plywood panels representing the Ten Commandments, five on each side. Those panels were part of the 1955 modernization of our historic building. They were manifestly inappropriate in design and finish color. I hated them. As the water coursed down the panels, I said, “delaminate, delaminate”, and there before our very eyes, the panels began to curl and fall apart.

Chris:Damage costs were $300,000 for the church building, $18,000 for the organ and $1200 for contents in the church. Insurance covered most of these costs. A building restoration fund was established and $12,000.00 was collected in contributions. Annual pledges totaled $66,000 at the time with 74 pledging.

Dudley: The firemen’s water poured down the chancel screen, but thanks be to God, our beautiful pipe organ, though somewhat damaged, was spared ruin.

Chris:The very next day Members of the church were hard at work cleaning up the interior of the building, sweeping out water and trying to dry out the hymn books. Worship service two days later on Palm Sunday was held in fellowship hall.

Dudley: Albeit, soggy and it was mighty soggy, Sunday service was held in the fellowship hall so that history would record that never was there a Sunday service missed at Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church.