In January 1957, Syracuse and much of Central New York experienced particularly cold weather, even for their standards. According to the Post Standard from Thursday, January 17th, temperatures in Syracuse during the week fell to “a frigid minus-13, only 39 degrees below normal.” This was after temperatures “plummeted to a January record low of 24 below zero between 8 and 9a.m. Tuesday [15th].” Headlines read, “Temperatures 10-15 Degrees Below Normal 5-Day Prospect for Area,” lining up more bone chilling weather for Central New Yorkers, which included a high of minus two at midnight earlier that week.
This set the stage to amplify problems during an emergency, specifically a fire, which is exactly what happened on the night of January 15th at the First Methodist Church on Block 114. With temperatures well below zero, 350 firemen fighting the blaze coated the church with “between three million and five million gallons of water” that turned to ice that was reported to be up to three feet thick.
Those who arrived on the scene first had an interesting story to tell. According to a Post Standard article on January 16th, people recalled hearing the organ continue to play until the roof ultimately caved in and destroyed it. The article states “the phenomena might have resulted from the heat of the flames affecting the swells so that noise sounded like music.” Those early arrivals mentioned it was “nothing recognizable” but “they unmistakably heard the organ play.”
After the fire, the Temple Society of Concord, one of the oldest in the country, invited the church to hold is Sunday worship services there.
According to the aforementioned Post Standard article, Fire Marshal John M. Dacey “ruled out arson as the cause of the more than one million dollar fire that destroyed the First Methodist Church, Wesleyan Publishing Co., and damaged two other buildings.” Instead, Dacey went on to say he was “investigating the possibility that a plumber’s torch might have cause the spark” setting the building ablaze. This was the city’s worst fire in more than a decade, ultimately destroying the church and the adjacent buildings. The fire broke out at 5:15pm and went on for several hours. The fire came close to destroying even more buildings in the area, including the Court House, Syracuse Public Library, Young Women’s Christian Association, and the Seymour Hotel.
Syracuse’s First Methodist Church was founded in 1824 and, to this point, was one of the oldest in Syracuse. According to the Post Standard article on January 16th, the church originally “met in a one-story log schoolhouse at North Salina and West Genesee Street.” Plans for this church were created by architect Archimedes Russell, who was also responsible for Central Technical High School, the Fourth Onondaga County Courthouse, Dey Brothers Building, and the Yates Hotel. Russell was also the founder of King + King Architects, now the oldest continuously operating architectural firm in New York State and the fourth-oldest in the country. According to an April 1899 article in the Post Standard titled, “First Methodist Church Will Be an Ornament,” it describes the future church as a largely Gothic style building with “many new and desirable features. The structure has a commanding tower and the arrangement of windows and entrances is pleasing to the eye.”
The cornerstone was laid in 1903 and its basement walls were made of Onondaga Limestone. The church was also one of the first churches to use radio in broadcast of its sermons, which began in 1923.