Is St. Mark’s on the chopping block?

WEST ORANGE, NJ — The engineering firm hired by the owner of the St. Mark’s Episcopal Church building inspected the remains of the fire-damaged structure and, on Jan. 22, submitted a preliminary stabilization report to the township.

Township business administrator Jack Sayers said the report from the Union City-based Optimized Engineering Associates Corp., which was submitted three days past the township’s Jan. 19 deadline after principal engineer Guy Lagomarsino requested an extension, confirmed that the building must be stabilized without going into much detail beyond that. Sayers said the firm asked to submit its full report — including a description of how it plans to stabilize the structure and drawings illustrating the work to be done — within the next week and a half.

The delay stems from the fact that it took Lagomarsino a while just to conduct his initial assessment as the property is so large and contains a significant amount of damage, Sayers said, adding that it’s not surprising the engineer needs additional time to put his full report together.

“It’s a lot of work,” Sayers told the West Orange Chronicle in a Jan. 25 phone interview. “Everybody thinks you can do this stuff in two or three days, but you can’t. It’s not the way it works.”

After the stabilization report is submitted, the International Federation of Chaplains — the organization that purchased the property in March 2015 for the Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal Church to use — is required to submit another report in February outlining whether it plans to restore or demolish the 188-year-old historic structure. The business administrator said he has not heard what the federation wants to do at this point, though it expressed a desire to refurbish the building shortly after the fire took place on New Year’s Day. He said an insurance inspector did examine the site, but the federation has not discussed its insurance situation with the township.

Representatives from the federation did not respond to requests for comment before press time on Jan. 26.

While the fate of the church remains unclear, many residents involved with the architectural and historical communities continue to be vocal about a wish to see the building saved. Some are even making efforts to prepare for a restoration in case that is the path the federation decides to take.

Architect Jerry Eben, who is a member of both the West Orange Planning Board and Downtown West Orange Alliance, told the Chronicle he has been working “nonstop” since first hearing news of the fire to try to bring about a refurbishment for the structure. In less than a month, Eben said he has already reached out to the Episcopal Diocese of Newark and Kenneth Underwood, an architect who worked on the church approximately 30 years ago, asking them to share any architectural records or images of the building they may still have. Underwood told Eben that the diocese might have his material, and Eben said the diocese is currently looking through its archives for it. In the meantime, he said the diocese has promised to give him roughly 100 photos it took of the church before selling it to the federation in March 2015.

Since legendary architect and American Institute of Architects co-founder Richard Upjohn redesigned part of the building in the 1860s, Eben said he has also requested that the AIA’s archivist search the organization’s records in Washington, D.C., to see if it has any information that could aid the restoration process. In the near future, he said he plans to contact Columbia University’s Avery Architectural Library and a New York-based church restoration company Underwood had worked with for the same purpose.

In addition, Eben said he has also discussed the option of making the church property an area in need of redevelopment with township acting planner Paul Grygiel. Taking that action — which would come after a multistep process involving a Township Council proposal, Planning Board recommendations following a public hearing and then council approval — could pave the way for restoration to take place. But Grygiel stressed to the Chronicle that, while an area in need of redevelopment is a possibility, there are currently no plans to designate the church as one.

Whatever comes of his work, Eben said he just hopes the church is saved somehow. Speaking as both an architect and a “West Orange enthusiast” for nearly 40 years, he said the building is an invaluable part of the town’s legacy, and he feels that the township should do whatever it can to bring about a restoration. And though he realizes that it might take a “Herculean effort” to save the structure due to the costs involved, he said he believes St. Mark’s is worth it.

“My goal is to save the church and to rebuild a piece of architecture that was literally the gateway to our community,” Eben said in a Jan. 22 phone interview.

Eben feels so strongly on this subject that he has gotten his colleagues in the New Jersey chapter of the AIA involved, inviting historical architecture expert Mark Alan Hewitt, strong timber architecture expert Eli Goldstein and AIA-NJ President Justin Mihalik to speak at the Jan. 5 Township Council meeting. Mihalik even sent letters to the national AIA leadership and the Architects Foundation, the organization’s charitable arm, making them aware of the church’s architectural significance and requesting that they lend resources to refurbish the structure.

Mihalik, who happens to be a former West Orange resident himself, said he has not heard back from them yet, though he only sent the letters Jan. 18. He added that he is currently working on getting an audience with Congressman Donald Payne Jr. and Congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen to discuss the chances of saving the building.

Meanwhile, the AIA-NJ president said he had met with federation representatives earlier this month to let them know his group was willing to put them in touch with the kinds of architects needed to restore St. Mark’s, as well as help fundraise for the cause. He said they seemed grateful for the offer, though he has not spoken with them since.

But Mihalik said the offer is still on the table because the church is simply too historically and architecturally important not to save.

“We’re conserving the history of our country, and that church is part of that,” Mihalik told the Chronicle in a Jan. 22 phone interview. “And that church is the best example of Gothic revival architecture in church design done by the most renowned architect at the time, Richard Upjohn. So you take all of those elements together, and that in itself says that this building needs to be preserved.”

St. Mark’s is listed on both the national and state historic registers. As such, any construction or demolition intended for the site must go before the West Orange Historic Preservation Commission for approval.

Yet HPC Vice Chairman Martin Feitlowitz is not willing to wait for a proposal, instead devising a few ideas for the church’s restoration that he presented to the Township Council during its Jan. 19 meeting. The first was for the town to hire an engineering firm to do its own assessment of the property; that way, Feitlowitz explained to the Chronicle, the township will have a second opinion on the feasibility of saving the structure.

“I always feel it’s best to have an independent study done as opposed to one paid for by the owner of the property,” Feitlowitz said in a Jan. 21 phone interview. “To me, it just seems like a safe way to go is to make sure we’re getting the right information because this is such an important project.

“You don’t want to make a mistake,” he continued. “Let’s see if everybody’s on the same page. Or are we getting one story from one group and another story from the others? It just seems to me the better way to go is to be able to compare two studies.”

Feitlowitz said the commission does not have enough money in its budget to pay for an independent study, which is why he is urging the township to use whatever emergency funds it has to cover the expense. Sayers said the matter is being discussed, though any decision would have to be made by the council.

The vice chairman’s other idea involves rallying restoration supporters and former congregants of the church to establish a Friends of St. Mark’s nonprofit group so people can donate money to the cause. Though he has not heard of any plans for such a group, he said he may start trying to track down people to get one started. After all, he said, St. Mark’s was such an integral part of West Orange’s legacy that saving it should be a priority.

“This is something the whole community ought to get around and help in any way that is possible,” Feitlowitz said.

What the property owner should do immediately, Feitlowitz said, is shore the structure to protect it from the elements. Right now the structure is very delicate, and though it survived the recent snowstorm, he said he is quite concerned about the possibility of strong winds knocking over the walls or moisture penetrating the sandstone they are made of, cracking them. The worst of the winter weather lies ahead, he warned, so time is of the essence.

Meanwhile, Essex County Prosecutor’s Office spokeswoman Katherine Carter told the Chronicle that the Arson Task Force still has not determined the cause of the fire that gutted the church’s interior and caused its roof to collapse. Carter did say that there is no evidence of arson, nor is there any evidence of trespassers inside the building prior to the blaze.

Also unclear is what happened to the seven stained glass windows that the federation removed from the church in the months before the fire. Just before the township issued a notice of violation to the federation for starting to install an HVAC system without the necessary permits — work that involved removing the windows without the approval of the commission — township historian Joseph Fagan said that he and Councilwoman Susan McCartney visited the church to see if any stained glass had been thrown into a Dumpster. Fagan said someone from the federation told them that the windows had already been taken away, and that they had been disposed of because they were in poor condition and were not needed.

As a result, Fagan said the windows might have been saved from the fire, though not from the ravages of time. Their whereabouts today remain a mystery.

  Joseph Fagan, St. Mark’s Church