Fire Breaks Out at Cathedral of St. John the Divine
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 8:44 a.m.
NEW YORK -- Fire broke out Tuesday morning at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, with black smoke billowing 40 feet high from the Episcopal church that has been under construction for more than a century.
"We were going to do `The Messiah` in two days," said Cathedral organist Dorothy Papadakos, "but I don`t think it`s going to happen."
Dozens of firetrucks converged at about 7 a.m. as the smoke rose from a gift shop in the rear of the church and scores of onlookers stood by. Officials at the scene said no injuries were reported.
The house of worship, which calls itself "the world`s largest cathedral" and is listed by the Encyclopedia of New York City as the nation`s largest, is at Amsterdam Avenue and West 112th Street, in the Morningside Heights neighborhood.
Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen was at the scene. Police at the scene said it appeared part of the roof of the cathedral had caved in.
"We were just crying all the way down here," said Margaret Hurwitz of Washington Heights, whose son, Nicholas, 12, goes to the Cathedral School.
The school is on the cathedral grounds, about two blocks from the fire scene. Hurwitz and her son headed there to find out whether it would be open; other children were seen leaving the area, crying and carrying book bags.
"You know, after the World Trade towers, you want something to be secure," said Hurwitz. "This is where we came that day."
The first stone of the historic cathedral was laid in 1892, but construction has never been completed, and work continues to this day. Papadakos said the organ was the city`s fourth largest and dates to 1910.
The American Institute of Architects "Guide to New York City" says the cathedral combines "the happy interests of social activism, avant-garde art and music, and a heavy and heady interest in architecture."
A British master stonemason was brought to New York to train local youths in old-fashioned stonecutting methods.
"Despite its incompleteness and mix of styles, it is an impressive interior," the AIA guide says, "enormous not only in plan but also in volume, its side aisles being built as high as the nave."
"Were St. John the Divine to be completed, it would be the world`s largest cathedral," the guide says.
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