Photo by Robert Camacho.
BUSHWICK — The historic South Bushwick Reformed Church — known for its iconic tilted steeple and Greek Revival style — burned down Friday afternoon in a three-alarm blaze that left the community shocked and heartbroken.
A total of 192 firefighters and EMS personnel responded to the scene, according to a FDNY press statement, and no injuries were reported from the blaze. First responders arrived at the scene within minutes to find an intensifying blaze that quickly escalated to third-alarm. Though there was “no indication of suspicious activity at the scene,” per FDNY, the cause of the fire remains under investigation as of June 23.
The church was first built in 1852 and has weathered a slow decline in congregation membership since the 1960s, reaching just a few dozen by the time of its burning. In 1968 it was listed as a New York City Landmark by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, and added to the National Register of Historical Places in 1982. A tornado strike in 2006 left the steeple damaged, giving it the characteristic tilt locals have come to love.
“The Bushwick skyline really included our steeple,” the church’s pastor, Rev. Dr. James E. Steward II, told The New York Times. “People who were lost in the neighborhood would find their way home by locating the spire. It’s in the fabric and culture of the community, culturally and historically.”
Brooklyn Community Board 4 Chair and neighbor Robert Camacho said he smelled the flames before he saw them.
“I’m looking around my house, wondering where the smoke is coming from,” he said. “Someone, one of my board members, called me and told me that a church was on fire. I couldn’t believe it. I said, ‘What church?’”
According to Camacho, recent services at South Bushwick Reform Church have been held on Zoom due to decline in the building’s structure.
Camacho and others shared rumors that fire could have been part of a plot to make way for housing in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood, though arson allegations remain speculation until an investigation is complete. He added that he’ll be meeting with Pastor Steward and community leaders soon to discuss reconstruction plans.
For Bushwick’s longtime residents like Camacho, the church’s burning represents a further erosion of the community’s family-oriented side, which he says has slowly disappeared over the years as Bushwick’s turned into one of the city’s swankiest nightlife neighborhoods.
“We can’t express how we feel, because we fought so hard in this community to be here when no one wanted to be here, and nobody thought of Bushwick,” he said. “Now everybody wants to come in and push away the people that made this place— our churches, our community, our housing, our businesses.”
“Our daycares are gone, our churches are gone, and our schools are under-enrolled,” Camacho continued “What do you think is gonna happen to Bushwick?”
