ST. LOUIS — More than 200 volunteers have shoveled debris, swept ash and picked up bricks after a devastating fire last week tore through the historic St. Liborius church, destroying the rectory and indoor skate park that called the north ºüÀêÊÓƵ parish home.
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Sk8 Liborius, which operates the skate park, said it’s determined to rebuild — one way or the other — and fulfill its mission of providing a sanctuary for skaters, artists and others. It wouldn’t be the first time Sk8 Liborius has tried to save the church, at the corner of Hogan and North Market streets.
“We are invested in our neighborhood and our community, and we don’t want to go anywhere,†said Lorna Kurdi, president of the Liborius Urban Art Studios nonprofit that runs the group. “We’re gonna figure out how we rise.â€
St. Liborius has been reborn many times over its 134-year-old life. It was originally built for the thousands of German Catholic immigrants who arrived in ºüÀêÊÓƵ. Then, as the Germans moved out of the neighborhood, the church served other faithful before a dwindling number of parishioners forced its closure in the 1990s.
The Catholic Worker project called the Karen House used the three-building complex as a homeless shelter before it turned over the church a decade ago to Dave Blum and Bryan Bedwell to use for their indoor skate park and community outreach organization, . Both have years of experience with creative problem solving: Blum worked with City Museum founder Bob Cassilly and Bedwell is a skate park builder — he constructed one under the Kingshighway viaduct.
Sk8 Liborius was in the process of raising over $1 million to bring the building, which had deteriorated over the years, up to code when the fire occurred on June 28.
Firefighters battled the blaze for hours overnight, dousing other nearby buildings to stop the fire from spreading. No one was injured.
On Thursday, the cause of the fire had still not been determined, but Kurdi said the group believes it started near the kitchen in the rectory.
“The fire traveled across the roofs. The first and second floors of the rectory are, for the most part, water- and smoke-damaged,†Kurdi said. “The shell of the sanctuary is still standing, apart from the roof.â€
Sk8 Liborius is unsure of the condition of the floor where the roof fell; there’s a basement underneath that could compromise how much weight the floor could hold. The group is reaching out to engineers to provide a better assessment. It applied for a demolition permit with the city of ºüÀêÊÓƵ, Kurdi said, “to cover all of our bases.â€
“We’re not going anywhere,†she said. “We just have to figure out what’s our new look.â€
Sk8 Liborius launched to raise money to rebuild. It’s received donations from across the country, and even from Ireland. It will post opportunities for volunteers on its and accounts.
St. Liborius has always had a special pull for Kurdi. She remembers the goosebumps she felt every time she walked in. It’s a feeling worth saving.
“The awe of that building never goes away,†Kurdi said.
Nearly four months after a fire gutted the north ºüÀêÊÓƵ cathedral-turned-skate park, its founders and stakeholders say a second coming for …
Artwork is visible in the destroyed interior of Sk8 Liborious, a skate park inside the former building of St. Liborius Catholic Church, after a four-alarm fire on Thursday, June 29, 2023, in ºüÀêÊÓƵ.
Firefighters continue to put water on the smoldering ashes of Sk8 Liborius, a skate park in historic north ºüÀêÊÓƵ church, on Thursday, June 29, 2023. A four-alarm fire late Wednesday that burned through early morning hours of Thursday burned the roof off and reduced the building to a brick shell. Photo by David Carson, dcarson@post-dispatch.com