St. Laurentius' Supporters Recognized for Monumental Achievement

Today marks the 37th anniversary of a tragic fire in Philadelphia which claimed the magnificent church, St. Joachim in Frankford. In what can best be described as a beautiful moment of poetic irony, today also marks the day that the community who rallied to save another church - St. Laurentius, of the same vintage and ironically designed by the same architect, Edwin Forrest Durang - is being hailed by Preservation Alliance with the presentation of the John Andrew Gallery Community Action Award at the 23rd Annual Preservation Achievement Awards. Securing the historic designation of St. Laurentius in less than 4 months was a monumental and epic feat that took a small army to achieve. Some of us were more visible than others, but the truth is that this award belongs to every parishioner, community member and concerned citizen who supported and rallied for this church. It belongs to the 2,792 individuals who signed and shared the petition asking the Philadelphia Historic Commission to consider our 11th hour submission. It includes the 1,119 people who viewed and shared the story "I am St. Laurentius" on YouTube and were inspired by the truth as narrated by Wayne Morton, and his sound engineer, Jeff Willey, who both donated their time and studio resources to professionally record it. (Thank you both for giving this story a relatable voice!) It includes concerned members of the press who gave this story a louder voice to reach politicians and the community at large. It recognizes dozens upon dozens of friends and colleagues who logged countless hours to guide these efforts to their successful completion. And for me, on a personal level, this award also belongs to my Dad, a man who completed his high school education in the Army but is truly the most genuinely passionate, self-made Philadelphia historian that I know. Throughout my life, he engaged me with stories of Philadelphia and its amazing and rich history from its founding through my own lifetime. I honestly love listening to his history lessons and my only regret is that I cannot remember them all. In spite of ALL my education, my dad is the ONE and ONLY person who taught me about the supreme authority of the Philadelphia Historic Commission to save historic buildings and how it saved endangered buildings in our most historic square mile during his lifetime. It is directly because of him and what he taught me that I was compelled to reach out to Save St. Laurentius the day the demo plans were announced to tell them that we had one very valuable door available, the Philadelphia Historic Commission (albeit a Hail Mary pass given the timeline). I am incredibly grateful that they listened to what I had to say because what happened from that point on was truly a beautiful fire storm of effort and passionate determination to save this beloved landmark. I am really proud of what all of us were able to achieve as a team in the face of less than favorable odds. Today, we celebrate everyone who stood up to say #ThisPlaceMatters. The moral of this story is that we couldn't save St. Joachim... But we can save St. Laurentius and other landmarks like it. We achieved the unthinkable with the designation of St. Laurentius' exterior and efforts are ongoing for the designation for the interior. The community is not content with the developer's current plans to gut this glorious space and convert it into apartments. They have developed a business plan to adaptively reuse this church as a community events center for weddings, performance arts, and corporate functions. The business plan has been drafted and has good support. It will sustain the space and its restoration and maintenance long term and will bring economic opportunities to small businesses in the area who, in turn, will have a vested interest in St. Laurentius' future. The space will also have a sponsoring non-profit which will host open houses during the day so that those who so passionately wanted their church reopened by the Archdiocese can still come inside to pray, reflect or just be. It's not what the parishioners had hoped and prayed for, but their heartache is real and because of that it is important to continue that legacy of prayer in this sacred space. Please follow and support these valiant efforts at "The Faithful Laurentians" on Facebook.