WEST ORANGE, NJ — The restoration of the historic St. Mark’s Episcopal Church is progressing slowly but surely in the wake of the New Year’s Day fire that left the 188-year-old local icon severely damaged.
Minister Sergio Artiles Jr. of the Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal Church, the congregation that occupied the building up until the blaze, told the West Orange Chronicle that all the charred debris was removed from the church’s interior during an approximately two-month period. Additionally, Artiles said that a team of volunteers led by a licensed professional has stabilized some of the structure’s walls as work continues on the remainder of the building.
And while the minister acknowledged that there is still a long road ahead, Artiles said his congregation members are not wavering in their efforts to preserve what is left of St. Mark’s.
“It’s going a little slow, but we’re getting there,” Artiles said in a Sept. 1 phone interview. “It’s been very hard, but we’ve been praying to God that He will let us continue.”
Meanwhile, Artiles said his congregation recently hired a new architect and engineering firm in place of its previous engineer, who had not finished his restoration design plans. He said the architect, Jose Medina, is currently working on an entirely new set of plans that should be completed soon. Medina was unable to comment before press time Sept. 6.
Once Medina submits his finished plans to West Orange construction official Tom Tracey and the West Orange Historic Preservation Commission, engineer Jay Wager said his firm Aaes Engineering will be able to start its own design for the church’s roof. Wager said the firm will not know exactly what it will do until it sees the architect’s design, though he said its plans will likely involve the use of steel trusses. The original St. Mark’s roof was held up by wooden trusses, but the engineer said using them would simply be too costly.
Though the congregation had already started stabilizing the church structure by the time Wager evaluated the site, the engineer also submitted a temporary shoring detail to provide further guidance on wall bracing. He said the church’s stone walls were already short and strong enough to be largely stable on their own, and the St. Mark’s steeple had held up well. The only concern he found was the fact that the front wall lacked any lateral support without the roof in place. It would require hurricane-strength winds to blow the wall down even in that condition, he said, but it nonetheless needed to be braced.
So Wager said that his firm advised the congregation to attach a heavy cable from the top of the wall to a concrete anchor on the ground. Additionally, he said that the firm recommended placing two steel beams across the base of the wall to keep it from deflecting, or bending.
Overall, Wager said he is confident St. Mark’s can be restored to a functioning church — it just might take a while considering the number of stakeholders involved and the fact that the congregation seems to be doing much of the work itself in order to save money. The engineer’s only sadness is that the building will never truly be the same.
“It’s physically impossible to bring it 100 percent back to the way it was — there’s too much damage and the stonework is too old to try to repair,” Wager told the Chronicle in a Sept. 1 phone interview. “I wish I could bring it all the way back, but you’re going to see the scars of this fire for the rest of the time that this building stands. You can’t fix every wound.”
Wager said it is essential to construct a roof as soon as possible so that the walls are completely stabilized and protected from the elements. The engineer estimated that 80 percent of the roof was destroyed by the fire, leaving the stone exposed. And considering how much damage the blaze did, he said the congregation should not let it stay that way for long.
“The fire really did some very bad things to the building,” Wager said. “The stonework has been pretty substantially damaged, but it’s still something that can be saved. But it’s on the verge of not being savable should this work not continue.”
Gerald Gurland, an architect and member of the Historic Preservation Commission, is also concerned about the weather as winter fast approaches. Gurland said strong winds can have a destabilizing effect on walls while water can freeze inside cracks in the stone, causing the cracks to expand and weaken the stone’s structural integrity. He said the congregation has been advised in the past to put tarps over the building, but it has not done so yet.
Still, Gurland said he is pleased that the congregation has been open to having members of the HPC visit the site. He said that Chairman Brian Feeney, Vice Chairman Martin Feitlowitz, Councilman Joe Krakoviak and he were able to see how the project was progressing when they stopped by in July, and he intends to set up another meeting soon. He only wishes that the congregation would be more open about matters such as how they are planning to pay for such a massive restoration project.
The cost of the preservation will undoubtedly factor into how the project proceeds, with Gurland pointing out that it will likely cost millions if the congregation decides to restore both the interior and exterior. And though everyone from politicians to the New Jersey chapter of the American Institute of Architects has expressed support for the restoration, he said no one has made any substantial monetary contributions to help make it happen. The HPC might have been able to help financially, but the township only gives it roughly $1,000 per year compared to the hundreds of thousands it gives to the Downtown West Orange Alliance, Gurland said.
“Something is wrong with that,” Gurland told the Chronicle in a Sept. 1 phone interview. “The priorities are misguided.”
But Mayor Robert Parisi told the Chronicle that West Orange is not going to spend any money on restoring a property it does not own. Parisi said the township would assist with any grants applicable to historic sites though, and it also would encourage any resident to donate to the congregation.
The mayor added that he would love to see St. Mark’s fully restored, though it is “way too early” to speculate on whether that will happen. Only the property owner — the International Federation of Chaplains, which purchased the building in March 2015 for the Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal Church to use — can decide if that will be possible, he said.
“I think everyone understands that this is probably a very, very expensive venture,” Parisi said in a Sept. 1 phone interview. “Ultimately it’s their property and they’re going to have to make a decision on what’s best for them. We have not heard from them in several weeks. I’m sure they have a lot going on in trying to figure out what’s best for them and what they can financially do to make this happen.”
Artiles said finances are indeed a major consideration, pointing out that the congregation has already spent “a lot” of money just on clearing the debris from the fire. Once Medina submits his design, he said the church hopes to get a line of credit to help pay for the rest of the needed work. It also wants to request support from major corporations and banks, he said. Plus, the minister said the church is setting up a website so people can easily contribute to the restoration effort.
Additionally, Artiles said the congregation is continuing to collect donations from its members as well as the outside community. In fact, he said numerous West Orange residents contributed money at its Street Fair table in June, and many other have sent encouraging emails. The minister said that his congregation appreciates the support, especially after all it has been through.
“At the beginning it was very, very hard because everybody was in shock,” Artiles said. “Now everyone is absolutely working hard.”
West Orange Planning Board member Jerry Eben has also been working to aid the restoration process ever since the fire occurred in January. His efforts allowed him to track down the complete archives of Richard Upjohn, the renowned 19th-century architect who redesigned part of the church in the Gothic Revival style, in Columbia University’s Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library. Eben told the Chronicle that he alerted the HPC to his find in case it wants to use Upjohn’s records to help with the preservation. He said he hopes that a full restoration will be possible since St. Mark’s has been an integral part of West Orange’s history for nearly 200 years.
Photos by Sean Quinn
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