Stones fall from crumbling Fishtown church, prompting school next-door to close for the day
It is the second time this year that St. Laurentius School has had to close because of safety concerns from the nearby church building.
St. Laurentius School in Fishtown closed for the day Monday after stones fell from the parish’s crumbling church building nearby.
No injuries were reported after the stones fell from St. Laurentius Church about 1 a.m. and smashed into protective scaffolding at the shuttered 130-year-old house of worship.
The school also closed for a day following a similar incident in January.
Inspectors from the city Department of Licensing and Inspections were called to the church again early Monday after more stones fell from the building.
Located at Berks and Memphis Streets, the 8,000-square-foot church has been the subject of neighborhood fights and court battles since the Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced in 2014 that it was closing the property, the city’s first Polish Catholic church, for “safety reasons.”
City Council in March voted to change the zoning of the land surrounding the church, helping to clear a path toward redevelopment of the historic property.
The legislation rezoned the land directly underneath and near the church to allow for multifamily development, while the remainder of the block’s zoning, for single-family buildings, remains the same.