Cathedral fire 50 years ago left spiritual hole in diocese, city

Published: 2006-03-21

TRENTON, N.J. (CNS) -- Five decades have passed since fire raced through the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption in Trenton, laying waste not only to the state capital's most prominent Catholic icon but to a parish church dear to the hearts of generations of Trentonians. Time has not dimmed the memory of that morning for Kathleen O'Donnell. She recalls clearly that rain-swept, chilly and smoke-filled dawn of March 14, 1956, when she stood with her parents and other family members, friends and acquaintances, and watched flames consume a key component of their spiritual heritage. She had graduated from the cathedral's high school not too long before the fire. Her parents, Joseph and Margaret O'Donnell, were married there and her sister baptized there. "We had a real connection to the cathedral," O'Donnell recalled in an interview with The Monitor, Trenton diocesan newspaper. "I really can't explain what it was like to watch it burn. It was a loss, such a loss. ... It took a terrible toll on everybody." The cathedral and rectory were gutted by the blaze, which left only the walls of the 85-year-old structure standing and, for a time, created a gaping hole in the landscape of downtown Trenton.

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