A year after a destructive blaze, Overbrook Presbyterian Church is rebuilding its sanctuary and members’ hope

A year ago, when Pastor Adam Hearlson looked at the charred ruins of Overbrook Presbyterian Church’s (OPC) sanctuary, he remembered feeling a combination of anger and grief.

“It wasn’t just a building, it was our building,” he told congregants at the church’s first postfire Sunday service, which was held at neighboring Penn Wynne Presbyterian Church.

A blaze on Jan. 15, 2024 gutted the 136-year-old church’s sanctuary, destroying items like a 1939 M.P. Möller Pipe Organ valued at $1.7 million. Built in 1889, the church, located at 6376 City Ave., is in the U.S. Department of Interior’s National Register of Historical Places.

A few days after the fire, Hearlson held an outdoor vigil. Despite the frigid temperature, parishioners walked the perimeter to get a closer look at the damage.

» READ MORE: After a devastating blaze, Overbrook Presbyterian Church has found a community of generosity to help it recover

Hearlson led the church in a second vigil on Wednesday, the one-year anniversary of the fire. The hour-long program was a combination of remembrances and a tour of the church to check on the restoration progress. “This is an opportunity to share those memories, not in a spirit just of grief but a spirit of delight,” Hearlson told a group of about 25 OPC members.

But delight wasn’t exactly how Becky Lazo described her feelings. “I was here the night of the fire. I saw the building on fire,” said Lazo, who has been a member of OPC for 14 years.

She said the church has been an ongoing support to her and her two children, helping her with raising her children and through a divorce. “This is a second home. I’m still sad,” Lazo acknowledged.

“This is a second home. I’m still sad.”

Lois Davis walked around the sanctuary and recalled how her grandson, as a toddler, delighted in pretending to direct the music as the organist played the postlude each Sunday. Then they would walk together, looking at the church’s historic stained glass windows, which were originally installed in the sanctuary in 1905. It was that recollection, she said, that “was the saddest part for me.”

“I do want to recognize that this is a day, not just to commemorate the fire, but also a day for us to be grateful and to live in the posture of gratitude,” Hearlson told the gathering, before asking members to recall the organizations that have supported OPC since the fire.

The list included Penn Wynne, which provides space for OPC’s weekly service; St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Ardmore, which makes room for choir rehearsal; and Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El in Wynnewood, which hosts OPC’s weekly Bible study. One casualty of the fire has been the Overbrook Preschool and Kindergarten, which moved to the Presbyterian Church of Llanerch in Havertown but closed in May. The school had been open since 1966.

The pastor also called the names of financial supporters, including the Overbrook Hospital in Thailand, a contribution with a long history. A century ago, OPC gave $16,000 to a missionary from Thailand, who preached at the church and was raising funds for a hospital, which was named the Overbrook Hospital. When the staff at Overbrook Hospital heard about the fire at the church, they contributed $16,000.

Hearlson said that one thing he would not have predicted a year ago is that the church has picked up members. He attributes that to people wanting to be a part of a community that supports one another when times are hard.

The fire started not long after parishioners commemorated MLK Day by placing T-shirts around the building as part of the Memorial to the Lost, symbolizing lives lost to gunfire, which they did annually.

The fire was accidental. Linseed oil-soaked cleaning cloths, used to clean the pews in the sanctuary, were stored in a bucket near the organ. Linseed oil can spontaneously combust. No one was injured. Hearlson said they are being transparent about the cause not to make parishioners feel bad but with the hope of helping others avoid this type of accident.

According to the construction site manager, Joseph Ventresca, who helped lead the parishioners around the construction, things could have been much worse. But because of the century-old church’s solid stone construction, there was no structural damage.

“It’s a big project, and the toughest part is restoring the stained glass windows,” Ventresca said, adding that they have found artisans in Pittsburgh and that work will commence next month.

“...There will be a time again when we gather in these spaces.”

Hearlson, an adjunct professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, said he is considering writing a book and teaching a course for ministers on dealing with disruption. For Hearlson, who started six years ago, his tenure has been marked by disruption: first COVID and then the fire.

“These moments of disaster pull us closer together,” Hearlson said, adding ministers are usually unprepared for such circumstances and don’t know who to call or what theologies to lean on.

Early estimates were that it would be two to three years before the sanctuary was ready for worship. Ventresca said he believes the church will celebrate Christmas in their sanctuary this year, although not all the work is expected to be completed by then. Hearlson estimates the full restoration will cost $4 million to $5 million.

But, on the anniversary of the worst thing to happen to the church, Hearlson ended with a prayer of gratitude.

“And so we give thanks for these memories as we turn our eyes to hope. We recognize that though we don’t have a ceiling and it’s a little dusty in here right now and the sanctuary doesn’t look like it looked ... there will be a time again when we gather in these spaces.”