Dec 18, 2001 | Q
There’s a ton of sadness eminating from the Upper West Side of New York City today, courtesy of a five-alarm fire that destroyed part of St. John the Divine. Originally funded by J.P. Morgan, it’s the largest Gothic cathedral in the world (or will be when it’s finished, if that ever happens); it’s also the host to the annual Blessing of the Animals, when people bring animals of all sizes to be blessed by the Bishop of New York. The biggest fear today is that the organ sustained major damage in the fire, which would be a tremendous shame indeed.
Of course, sadder still is the message board about the fire over at Yahoo, which is filled with racism, ignorance, idiocy, hate, narrowmindedness, and plain weirdness.
• Posted by: Jason Levine on Dec 18, 2001, 11:29 PMThis hurts. When I lived in NYC, I spent most of a year on 111th & Broadway, and St.John’s was a short walk away. I’d go over and watch the workmen. In those days they were working on the front facade and part of it was covered by scaffolding. (In fact, I think I recall a small scaffold fire.)
• Posted by: Dan Hartung on Dec 19, 2001, 1:21 AM