Bushwick Church Plans Friday Benefit to Save Fire-Hit Hall

On Friday night, a Park Slope jazz venue will become the staging ground for an effort to save what the flames left standing on Bushwick Avenue. South Bushwick Reformed Church is hosting a benefit concert at ShapeShifter Lab, 837 Union Street, to raise money for stabilization work on Fellowship Hall, the historic addition that survived the June 19 fire that destroyed the congregation’s sanctuary and iconic steeple.

The headliner is Arturo O’Farrill, the Mexican American pianist, composer and Latin jazz musician. The show starts at 7 p.m. on Friday, October 23. Tickets are $50, though Monika Judkins, the church’s music and worship director, told Brownstoner that people can give what they can and still attend. She said audiences can expect guest performances, including a possible appearance by the church band.

“Music is a real gateway to healing, to feel good about yourself,” Judkins told Brownstoner, explaining why the congregation chose a concert as its fundraiser.

According to Brownstoner, Joselyn Espinoza, principal of Bushwick’s EBC High School for Public Service, and Matthew Mantione, the school’s music director, were instrumental in pulling the evening together and secured the Grammy-winning O’Farrill. Judkins said Espinoza was at the church the day of the fire and has wanted to support the congregation ever since.

The fire tore through the 1853 Greek Revival church at 855 Bushwick Avenue, toppling its steeple and destroying its sanctuary. In August, a 24-year-old man was arrested and charged with arson for allegedly “intentionally and maliciously” setting the blaze, Brownstoner reported. The original clapboard building was demolished by the city in the weeks after the fire.

Fellowship Hall, at 867 Bushwick Avenue, was largely spared. Completed in 1881 as a Sunday school building, the addition has a striking pediment and pilasters, and the entire complex was landmarked in 1968. The city halted its planned demolition of the hall in July and turned the site over to the church, which has been working with contractors on stabilization. Judkins said that work is near completion.

The scope, according to city records cited by Brownstoner, includes repairing the hall’s south wall masonry foundation, installing fiber-cement clapboard siding on the newly exposed party wall, adding new sheathing and shingles to the roof, and backfilling the area under the sanctuary. Old Structures Engineering is leading the work.

A longer road remains. Judkins said the congregation will begin planning the site’s future once the city’s emergency declaration for demolition of Fellowship Hall is lifted. “Rebuilding has been a process,” she said, “but we’re doing our best to work with the city and our construction team to move forward.”

A GoFundMe has raised more than $21,500 toward a $26,000 goal. Donations, including concert proceeds, will go toward the stabilization work that would allow the church to move back into Fellowship Hall. Judkins said the congregation is deeply grateful for the public’s support.