After fire, Moorestown center on path to recovery

Brad Kenney opens a door at the Moorestown Community House that reads "Authorized Personnel Only," and immediately comes the smell of smoke, a stark contrast from the hallway and ballroom on the other side that were spared damage during a November fire.

Past the door, in a dim kitchen, the vinyl flooring has been pulled to reveal the original hardwood from when the building opened in 1926. In the adjacent club room, a sheet covers a water-damaged Steinway piano - 103 years old - that Kenney is trying to salvage.

"This room gets used a lot," Kenney, the Community House's executive director, said last week, standing in the spot where the Moorestown garden and breakfast rotary clubs held their meetings before the fire. "So this was a big hit."

Two months after electrical issues sparked the flames in the attic at the Moorestown landmark, a flurry of repairs is underway, and some nonprofits that had to temporarily relocate are making do with less space.

Kenney said the repairs are occurring in three phases and should be done by the fall. They will include replacing walls, floors, ceilings, and the roof, mainly in the building's northeast corner and second floor. He said he's still finalizing the cost with the insurance company.

"It's not cheap," he said.

About $65,000 in donations has come in since the fire, he said. That went to the Community House's restoration campaign, which began in 2011 and has received $940,000 in that period. Some of it was spent on renovations before the fire.

The two-alarm blaze on Nov. 17 sent flames through the roof of the 90-year-old building on East Main Street, which more than 70 clubs and organizations routinely use. Two weddings had to relocate, but others have gone on, Kenney said. The swimming pool and the garden room were unscathed.

Some nonprofits with offices on the second floor were not.

The Interfaith Hospitality Network of Burlington County, which provides daytime services to homeless and displaced families, had to move to the building's basement.

The group's director, Pat Lasusky, estimates the space is less than half the size of the 1,200 square feet upstairs. They also lost access to a shower on the second floor, meaning families must use the shower at a church a mile away - Lasusky drove one family there - or go to friends' homes nearby.

Still, Lasusky said she is thankful for the basement space.

"It's clean, safe, and decent," she said. "It's just not - it's no-frills."

H.O.P.E., which assists people whose partners or spouses have passed away, also has moved temporarily to the basement from its second-floor office, where furniture, brochures, and office supplies were damaged.

Another organization on the second floor, NAMI FACE Burlington County, which helps families cope with mental illness, salvaged a conference table and two computers.

"They both smelled like smoke for the longest time," treasurer Brenda Hahn said. "But they seem to be working OK"

The organization now works out of First Presbyterian Church of Moorestown, where it already held support groups before the fire.

In the Community House's attic, green tarp covers some of the roof, and a pile of electrical wires snakes across the floor. Some of the roof beams are still charred from where the fire spread.

In the second-floor hallway, pink roof insulation covers parts of the floor.

The fire caused the nonprofit Tender Inc., which takes care of dementia patients who are dropped off by families during the day, to expedite its move to a new location in Mount Laurel. After receiving an emergency certificate of occupancy from the township, the nonprofit moved there on Nov. 30, more than a month ahead of schedule.

Before the move, however, some families had to miss work because they had no one to watch their loved ones.

"Everybody understood that our families were kind of desperate," said Barbara Fetty, the nonprofit's CEO.

Kenney acknowledged that the fire brought some challenges. But he said he is hopeful for the Community House's future.

"We're rebuilding," he said, "and it's going to be better than it was before."

mboren@phillynews.com

856-779-3829 @borenmc