The massive fire that gutted a historic East Village church on Saturday morning also displaced nearly two dozen women living next door.
Twenty-two women living at the historic Hopper Home, a single women's shelter on Second Avenue near Seventh Street, had to relocate after the fire spread to the building, operated by the Women's Prison Association (WPA), an organization helping women facing incarceration find safe housing and bringing their families back together.
Neighbors quickly rallied to help the women who were displaced in the wake of the blaze.
An entire room full of clothing was donated—so much that the association is no longer taking in-kind donations, but encouraged monetary donations due to unexpected costs ahead.
"As much as this is just a tragic, historical loss for city, for the church, and for the WPA, the resilience of the community has been amazing," WPA spokesperson Diana McHugh said in a phone interview Sunday. "The Middle Church congregants, truly in the midst of their own crisis yesterday, responded by showing up to our family shelter where the women from Second Avenue had been re-evacuated and taking those women shopping."
"I mean, they were in their pajamas—slippers and robes having evacuated from their beds. And the Middle Church members who showed up took them to buy clothes and personal care items," McHugh added.
After taking refuge from the chilly rain at the family shelter, most of the women were relocated to a Department of Homeless Services facility overnight, while some were able to stay with family due to the emergency, according to the association. Women who stayed with family overnight will be housed with the rest of the group by this evening.
McHugh said there was was smoke and water damage on the top two floors and the roof of the landmarked building, a Greek Revival style row house built in 1837.
The association has not been able to access to the building yet, but McHugh said staff is hopeful they'll be able to access the building to briefly pick-up residents' belongings by Monday.
McHugh said she was in awe at the outpouring of support from East Villagers and NYC.
"It’s such a difficult time—we’re mid pandemic, we’re post election, it’s been a year for everyone," she said. "It's really wonderful to see staff and residents alike coming together. And then the church, they're just such a prime example of practicing what you preach."
WPA bought the building at 110 Second Avenue around 1874. According to the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the building is considered the world's oldest "halfway house" for girls and women caught up in the criminal justice system and impacted by incarceration. The organization was founded by Quaker abolitionists and prison reform advocates, Isaac Tatem Hopper and his daughter Abigail Hopper Gibbons. Today, the building houses women impacted by incarceration or at risk of incarceration.
WPA had been neighbors with the Middle Collegiate Church since the building was built in 1891.
Senior minister Reverend Jacqui Lewis tweeted Saturday: "We are devastated and crushed that our beloved physical sanctuary at Middle Collegiate Church has burned."
"And yet no fire can stop Revolutionary Love," Lewis added.
The church as well as a neighboring building at Seventh Street and Second Avenue (not the shelter) were entirely gutted from the fire.
A fire had broken out at that same building at the intersection in February, shuttering a restaurant on the ground floor, EVGrieve reported at the time. The building was vacant when the blaze began Saturday before spreading to the church. The FDNY said the February fire was an accidental electrical fire unrelated to the current fire there.
Fire marshals are investigating the cause of the blaze, according to FDNY Assistant Chief John Hodgens.
"Middle Collegiate Church is one of the great, landmark institutions of our community, having served New York City for almost four hundred years and for over a century providing the East Village with spiritual and physical resources," East Village Councilmember Carlina Rivera said in a statement. "And the Women's Prison Association has provided housing, employment, and assistance for justice involved women for generations. The damage this fire has caused goes far beyond the structural effects alone."
