SOUTH BOSTON — Parishioners from across the Greater Boston area gathered across the street from their now burned-out place of worship, St. John the Baptist Albanian Orthodox, to commiserate about their past and wonder about the future.
Some of those gathered, like Sophia Andon, planned on spending the day in lawn chairs on the sidewalk across from their beloved church. Andon recalled how her father, an immigrant from Albania, was involved in the founding of the church in 1934 and expressed concern about would could be saved from the rubble.
“I heard that they’re gonna try to save the steeple, the part where the bell is, and the organ that was there since beginning,” said Andon, a resident of Saugus.
The Albanian Orthodox community is a small one in Boston and there are two nearby churches, but Andon said they would prefer to rebuild their church in its current location. “We’d like to rebuild and make it just as beautiful, I don’t know as tall, maybe only one level. We feel at home in Southie and that’s why I think we’d like to restore and do the whole thing over,” she said.
For many, the church was more than just a church — it was a community bound together by nearly a century of ethnic pride.
On the street behind the church, Athens Street, Evie Tamburi, 50, snapped photos of the devastated backside of the church with her camera. Tamburi grew up in the church and had to hold back tears while talking about what it meant to her. “It was a pillar of our spiritual strength,” said Tamburi, a resident of Quincy.
Tamburi echoed the thoughts of others visiting the site of the church, saying she’d like to see the church rebuilt. “It’s not just a loss for the Orthodox community but for the neighborhood itself as well,” she said.
Paul Nasson still can’t believe what happened. His family was involved in the church’s founding and later its governance when two of his brothers were president of it. Like many, he is devastated by the fire and fondly remembers its early days. “They built this church with quarters and half dollars. They worked hard,” he said.
Nasson said he hopes the church, because of its age and historical significance, qualifies for some kind of fund or grant to rebuild.
“I would never think that a church would be on fire,” said an emotionally upset Tom Evangelou, the church’s treasurer.
Evangelou, 71, said he saw a silver lining in the fire because he thinks it will bring the church community even closer together to rebuild. The rebuilding potential for the church, he thinks, will draw in people from the Albanian community that were perhaps on the fence about joining the church and actively participating in it, particularly financially.
“Right now, it took a couple years, but we have the younger generations coming in now,” he said, adding that the church had been growing younger and becoming more active over the last decade.
Lifelong South Boston residents Frank and Marilyn Akerley said the only recent fire they could remember that rivaled this one was a fire on Swallow Street in 2000. Though they are not members of the church they were still troubled by the fire. “It’s terrible. I hate to see a fire of any kind,” said Marilyn Akerley.
Investigators said that the cause of the fire was the short-circuiting of a light fixture in the roof. Damage to the church is estimated to be in the area of $1 million, and the building is likely a complete loss.