By Maureen O’Brien

“It looked like a building just after the blitz in London,” observed Monsignor Noel Burtenshaw, director of Catholic Communications for the archdiocese, who was taking pictures of the burned out Shrine the morning after the fire. That morning firemen were still cooling the roof with water and large sparks were falling down among the burned out pews. The smoke blackened white marble statue of the Pieta was the only thing that remained in one piece in the church.

No one was injured in the fire which started on Aug. 6, 1982, around 1:47 a.m. However, during the blazing fire the church’s roof collapsed and the inside of the 110-year-old monument was destroyed. The rectory, located directly behind the church, was not damaged.

According to M.A. Bell, Atlanta’s deputy chief of fire prevention, the fire apparently started in the ceiling above the light fixtures. Since there were no combustibles at that location, it seemed that the only thing that could have started the fire was the electrical wiring.

Franciscan Father Thomas Giblin, then pastor of the Shrine, happened to be staying up late watching a Braves game on television. He was just about to turn in when he was alerted to the blaze by a ringing burglar alarm, probably activated by smoke. Father Giblin was met by billowing clouds of smoke when he tried to enter through the back of the church at the sacristy. He called the fire department, then woke up the other priests in the rectory, associate pastor, Father Alvin Matthews and Father Walter Halaburda, a chaplain at Atlanta’s federal penitentiary. The three-alarm fire was brought under control at 2:30 a.m.

The 150-member congregation at the Shrine mainly consists of elderly people. There are only 30 children in the parish. Most parishioners have a sentimental rather than a geographic attachment to the church. These parishioners come to the church from outlying areas because they have roots here. In many cases, their parents were married at the church, they were baptized there and probably married there themselves. To many of these people, part of their lives had been destroyed in the fire. Ruby Davis was one of these people. For six years she had ridden the bus to the Shrine from Decatur to attend morning Mass. The morning after the fire she stood outside staring at the gutted church. Her eyes filled with tears as she told reporters, “If you love God and you come to Mass everyday and that place where you come has been destroyed, it takes a lot out of you.” To help fill the void for Ruby Davis and other parishioners, Central Presbyterian Church, the Shrine’s next door neighbor, generously offered its sanctuary for a single 9:15 a.m. Mass on Sunday.

“Because of the church’s historical significance,” commented Father Giblin, “there would have been an outcry not only from the parishioners, but also from the people of the city of Atlanta if the church had not been restored.”

When Henry Howard Smith, the architect who was later to work on the church, heard of the fire he said, “It is unbelievable to me that Atlanta’s oldest building suffered such tragedy.”

“When I saw the pictures in the paper after the fire I didn’t even want to look at the church itself,” he said. “It was an awesome responsibility to work on it and I wondered if I’d ever see it in the nicely restored condition it is in now.”

It was indeed a challenge to restore the Shrine to its present condition. The fire had destroyed the roof and the original wood trusses had to be replaced with steel. There was nothing left of the church’s original stained glass windows after the fire. According to construction manager, Malcolm Durden, the main altar was all but destroyed. Fifty percent of the altar now contains new pieces of marble; the rest has been repolished.

The masonry on the inside and outside of the church was completely rebuilt. Lime and sand was used for mortar in 1869 and the fire and water deteriorated this lime and weakened the walls. Starting four feet from the top, the brick on all the church’s major walls was taken apart piece by piece and cement mortar was put in the joints to make them stronger. The original brick was used everywhere on the face of the wall. New brick was put where it was less visible.

The fire can almost be forgotten in the joy of seeing the Shrine in its newly restored condition.