Gentilly church demolition proves bittersweet for many

Section: Religion

Daniel Monteverde

The crowd on the Paris Avenue neutral ground swelled to dozens Tuesday at dusk as the wrecking ball came crashing down on St. Francis Cabrini Church.

The orange-brick Gentilly church was partly a pile of twisted metal and rubble, partly still standing as the demolition crew left for the evening about 7:30. Its soaring white steeple still stood intact except for its cross, knocked on its side.

It was a bittersweet afternoon for the crowd, mainly made up of current and former parishioners, as they snapped final pictures and watched the church fall with each echoing boom of the wrecking ball.

"It's unbelievable," said Phyllis Martin, a parishioner of the church for the past five years. "It's incredible a storm could do this much damage and make this disappear."

"It's hard to see it go," said her husband, Jose Martin. "But it will bring the area back," he added, referring to Holy Cross High School's impending move to the site. Hurricane Katrina forced the 147-year-old boys Catholic school to relocate from the Lower 9th Ward campus it had called home since 1879.

In the coming months, the sites of the now-defunct St. Francis Cabrini Elementary School and Redeemer-Seton High School will be transformed into a new $25 million campus for Holy Cross.

The church, which was lauded by some for its modern architecture, met a controversial end that saw some parishioners and preservationists divided about its architectural and historical significance. A plan to use several million dollars of FEMA money to aid in the construction of the new Holy Cross campus forced a review of the proposal to demolish the church. Under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, money cannot be spent on projects that adversely affect a property eligible for listing on the National Register until possible ways to "avoid, minimize or mitigate" damage are reviewed.

In March, the decision was made to allow the demolition with the agreement that, among other items, the church's stained glass, altar and baptistery are preserved, as well as architectural drawings of the church. Where the church's altar is now will be a "no-build zone" where Holy Cross will memorialize the church.

Some of those watching the demolition found a way to memorialize the church in their own homes.

"Come on, get your bricks," one of the crew members yelled as he pulled the church's bricks from a nearby pile of rubble and slid them under a chain-link fence to those who wanted to keep a piece of the church as a memento.

Kenny Robert cradled two bricks under his arm. He spent part of his youth in the neighborhood and moved back with his wife ,Sandy, in the early 1990s.

The 1960s-era structure is where Kenny and Sandy Robert were married and celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary. Their first-born grandson was baptized in the church.

He said it was hard to see the church come down but found solace in the fact that many of its parishioners have returned or planned to return to the area.

"A church isn't a building, it's the people," he said.

Sandy Robert said she and Kenny will keep one brick and give another to Kenny's mother, who went to Mass at Cabrini every day. "I'm going to put it someplace special," she said as her eyes teared up. "I know it had to come down, and I hate for it to come down, but it's progress. God knows the city needs to move forward. Let's move forward; let's grow."

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Daniel Monteverde can be reached at dmonteverde@timespicayune.com.