Church Ceiling Collapse
235 Hill Street @ 2nd (Church in Ocean Park)
A section of the plaster ceiling of The Church in Ocean Park fell in April 2021.
“So we thought at first we’d just patch this little place that fell down, well it was kind of a large place, and it was during COVID so luckily, it didn’t hit anybody in the head because it was right where people sit and stuff like that. So we have had to patch a place before and the insurance company, when we thought they were going to pay for this, required an assessment so we did a thorough assessment and it shows three different reasons why the ceiling is liable to fall in different places and basically, the whole ceiling is liable to fall.”
The building is unusable until repairs are made. Reverend Janet Gollery McKeithen said the assessment didn’t point to a specific cause but rather an overall degradation of the ceiling. The damage is age-related and isn’t covered under the Church’s insurance policy. The estimated cost to repair the ceiling is about $100,000.
The Church in Ocean Park, built in 1923, is located in the 3rd Street Neighborhood Historic District and is a City Landmark.
Updates
Further assessment showed that it would take $300,000 to make the church safe to occupy again. Go here to donate.