Richard E. Koehler
Special to Essex News Daily
I am often asked, “When are ‘they’ going to put the statue back up on St. John’s School? We miss seeing it.”
On the highest point in the City of Orange stands the Church of St. John the Evangelist, the Catholic Mother Church of the Oranges.
The original parish boundaries included all of the Oranges, but over the years multiple parishes were carved out, including but not limited to Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Joseph’s in West Orange, Our Lady of the Valley in Orange, Holy Name and Our Lady Help of Christians in East Orange.
The parish boundaries still include swaths of Orange and West Orange, but no longer contain affluent neighborhoods that made possible the building of the present beautiful church and school, which sits across the street from the church.
When St. John’s new school building opened in 1894, it was described in The New York Times as the most beautiful school building in New Jersey, an appraisal arguably still valid.
It was designed by the distinguished architect Jeremiah Rourke, who also created the plans for St. John’s Church and the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark.
Over the years we old-timers have seen many historic and beautiful buildings disappear, victims of fire or the developer’s wrecking ball.
Immediately come to mind the loss of the Concert Hall and First Presbyterian Church in Orange at the corner of Main and Day to the 1927 fire.
In more recent years we have seen the wrenching loss of the fascinating Masonic Hall in Orange, and the devastating damage to St. Mark’s in West Orange.
Bulldozed at night were Condit House and the Rollinson and Reinhardt Mansions dating to the Colonial and Federalist periods.
In 2012 two disasters struck St. John’s School. In June of that year the Archdiocese of Newark closed the school which had been in operation since 1862 in the present or a previous building.
In September a horrific storm severely damaged the cupola of the school, and brought down the inspiring statue of Jesus, mounted on the cupola, which was visible from large parts of Orange and West Orange, giving comfort not only to Catholics, but to many other Christians, and even to non-Christians who were happy to lift up their eyes to something beautiful, especially at night when it was flood lighted.
St. John’s parish, like so many churches these days is financially struggling to stay in existence, but the congregation is still determined to raise that statue back up on the cupola, to give back that visual gift to the many within sight of it.
During the years since the loss of the statue, the parishioners have struggled to implement that goal.
The severely damaged statue has been fully restored to its original gilded copper appearance, solidly reinforced internally to last at least another hundred years. The Tuscan tiled roof of the school has been replaced at great cost to maintain the building’s architectural integrity. Unfortunately, each time the funding goal has been achieved to properly repair the cupola and securely mount the statue, the steep toll of inflation, has further pushed the cost out of reach.
This past winter, a retaining wall of the cemetery was severely damaged, and stands in danger of collapse. The congregation has once again had to divert their fundraising efforts to address that latest in the series of problems maintaining the aging structures of church, school and cemetery. It was hoped that this summer the statue could be remounted on the cupola, but hope is once again slipping from grasp. As action is necessarily delayed, the cost continues to mount.
Only another $20,000 should be sufficient at this time to add to the more than $100,000 already raised to restore the cupola and statue. If anyone would like to donate, please specify that your contribution is for that purpose.
Let us hope that another summer not pass without bringing back this historic inspiring view to our days and nights. If, amazingly, donations were to exceed the needed amount, funds will be placed in the fund to restore the church carillon, several of the bells which received the gold medal at the Nineteenth Century Parish Exposition.
How nice it would be to hear church bells ring out once again! In many countries the sound of bells is prohibited.
Richard E. Koehler is 83 years old and has been a parishioner of St. John’s Church his entire life.
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