An 19th century North St. Louis church went up in flames Wednesday night and with it, a popular skate park and hangout for youth was destroyed. In recent years, local skaters and artists had worked on the building to create SK8 Liborius, a group named after the St. Liborius Church, constructed in the late 1800s.
No one was injured in the blaze that began late Wednesday night and continued into Thursday morning. Investigators are looking into the cause but it reportedly started in the old rectory. Neighbors told KMOX winds whipped the fire into a frenzy.
"Fortunately, the wind was blowing in the opposite direction from our house," said Tenika Z., who lives across the street from the church at 1850 Hogan St. "We had to move our cars because it was pretty hot."
Thursday morning, Bekah Fisher sorted through the rubble looking for pieces of the church's stained glass windows. She told KMOX the skate and art community was devastated by the loss.
"It's a huge blow," said Fisher, who heads up a roller skating group. "We were definitely on the up-and-up, getting everything up to code. It took a lot of work. This might be the end of all that, unfortunately."
The SK8 Liborius team, led by David Blum, had raised tens of thousands of dollars for ongoing church renovations. As of Thursday morning, a GoFundMe page had raised nearly $62,000.
Fisher said the skate park was important to a lot of people, including youth in the community.
"Our kids would come skate here; they learned how to skate here," she said. "There's a youth center right across the street and they would come over. It's a big loss."
Fisher said she hoped to find enough stained glass in the rubble to create an artwork to honor SK8 Liborius.
