Vacant Historic St. Louis, MO, Church Destroyed in Three-Alarm Fire
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
(TNS)
ST. LOUIS — Investigators are trying to find the cause of a raging fire that destroyed a vacant church building on Monday in the Hyde Park neighborhood.
The 164-year-old brick building is at the corner of 19th Street and Newhouse Avenue, just north of Old North St. Louis. It's at least the fifth church to burn down in the city in as many years.
St. Louis firefighters started battling the three-alarm blaze about 11:30 a.m. Monday, and the Fire Department reported about 2 p.m. on social media that crews had the fire under control.
The sprawling church partly collapsed, and crews had worked from the streets — outside of the collapse zone — to try to contain the fire. Their fight included using five waterways from aerial fire trucks.
No injuries were reported. Four vacant buildings near the main structure sustained minor fire damage, the Fire Department said.
Investigators were back at the charred remains Tuesday to try to determine what sparked the fire.
The city planned to demolish one remaining wall that was in fear of collapsing. Squatters had been reported in the building since it was vacant.
The English Gothic-style church was built in 1861 for the Friedens United Church of Christ, which served German congregants. The organization occupied the property until about 2009 when it sold the property to Cephas Christian Church.
That group later sold the church to a community organization called Ladies of Peace Unlimited in 2020, but the group never occupied the building. The organization was trying to get a grant to run an outreach center but ran into title issues. The City records show officials condemned the property in 2023 due to structural problems.
Ladies of Peace Unlimited's president, Esther Noldon, said Tuesday that the building had no electricity. It had been boarded up yet burglars still managed to gain entry, she said, to take stained glass windows.
"I'm just trying to figure out how they got in, because it was boarded up," she said. "I guess, where there's a will, there's a way."
A neighbor notified Noldon recently that a man was seen taking gutters off the building. News of the fire, she said, was a jolt.
"I was just was speechless," Noldon said. "I couldn't believe it."
Noldon said one of the plans for the building was to bring in washers and dryers so people could do their laundry. "If they used it for a warming place, there are so many shelters," she said. "There's no reason for that. No reason."
Monday's fire was at least the fifth to hit a city church.
Last year, St. Augustine Catholic Church on Lismore Street was demolished after experiencing three fires. Preservationists there raced to save historic stained glass windows made by artisan Emil Frei.
In 2023, a church near Allen Avenue and South 13th Street in Soulard burned. It remains closed today.
In 2021, a fire damaged a bell tower in the historic Holy Corners district in the Central West End.
Notably, in 2023, a four-alarm fire engulfed the former St. Liborius, a towering historic church that had been converted into an indoor skatepark called Sk8 Liborius at Hogan and Market streets in north city.
Sk8 Liborius, which provided a gathering place for skateboards, artists and others, said it plans to rebuild.
© 2025 the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Visit www.stltoday.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
