Greek Orthodox Church Destoyed in the WTC Collapse

September 17, 2001

Greek Church Is Destroyed In Wake of Towers' Collapse

By RACHEL EMMA SILVERMAN
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

As rescuers pick through the World Trade Center rubble, the Rev. John Romas prays for the victims and their families, for the rescue and recovery workers, and for the remains of three individuals long dead: Saints Nicholas, Katherine and Savvas.

St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, a tiny church that for decades stood alone in the middle of a parking lot across the street from the World Trade Center, was swept away in the wave of destruction as the complex collapsed. "I was down there on Wednesday," says Father Romas, known as Father John among his congregants. "My heart was broke in two. My church is gone -- and to have so many people in the World Trade Center that are dead."

Constant Amid Change

Before the end came, the four-story building was known as a survivor, its plain white-washed walls cloaked in the shadows of the steel-and-glass skyscrapers that rose as the neighborhood evolved from a bustling immigrant enclave into a center of global finance. Property values soared, but despite developers' continual efforts to get the church to sell out, St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church steadfastly resisted razing.

Until last Tuesday.

"The first thing I saw was the landing gear of the plane along the right side of the church," says parishioner Bill Tarazonas, 50 years old, who was in the church that morning to let in an electrician. He fled before the towers fell and walked to safety in Brooklyn. "I saw a pickup truck slashed in half like a tomato. On the top of the roof was human remains. Bones lying all over the place. I was numb. I guess St. Nicholas gave me the push, the courage, to get out of there. I started running and running."

Lorraine Romas, the wife of Father Romas, says it has been difficult to account for all of the church's roughly 90 congregants. But she believes none died in the attack. "I'm devastated that we lost our little church," she says. "I'm more determined than ever to get it in our power to get it up again."

'Ecclesiastical Value'

Now, Father Romas and his congregants are collecting contributions to aid the recovery effort and rebuild. Father Romas hopes to get a permit from the City of New York to search through the wreckage for the fourth- and sixth-century saintly relics that are the church's treasures, housed on the building's fourth floor. "They certainly have sentimental and ecclesiastical value," says Father Romas's wife.

On the outside, St. Nicholas never was much to look at. The structure, built as a residence and then converted into a tavern, was purchased by St. Nicholas Church in 1922 for $25,000. Back then, the neighborhood was dominated by Greek, Syrian and other immigrants who settled there after landing at nearby Ellis Island. Many operated small produce businesses or worked alongside the thriving waterfront. At least three churches stood within as many blocks.

Over the years, as the shipping business declined and the financial services industry exploded, the neighborhood changed into a commercial center. One church became a bar called Moran's, and another moved into a rented storefront space. Many congregants moved to New York City's outer boroughs or the suburbs.

But St. Nicholas stayed put. Adrift in the middle of an asphalt parking lot, the structure bore little ornamentation other than a few signs, including some advertising parking rates and others that said, "Please no graffiti. This is a church." Just 22 feet wide, 56 feet deep and rising to a height of only 35 feet, the building was easy to miss among its mighty neighbors. Posted beside the church's entrance was a wide-angle photograph of the church against the backdrop of the Twin Towers.

Inside, however, St. Nicholas was richly decorated with sky-blue ceilings, ornate moldings, gilded chandeliers, and icons, including St. Nicholas, the patron saint of sailors, merchants and bakers who is revered for feeding the hungry and clothing needy children. In the West, he is known as Santa Claus.

Brothers and real-estate developers Paul and Seymour Milstein own the lot that surrounds the church, and they and others have held talks over the years with St. Nicholas Church on buying the property -- to no avail. In the mid-1980s, one developer floated plans to buy the church and build a multistory parking tower on the property, offering part of the top floor of the prospective garage to the church. But St. Nicholas rejected that idea, saying that among other things, the location would make it difficult to transport coffins and mourners for funeral processions. Since then, church officials have said they would sell the property only if the developer promised to build a larger church on the lot's corner, among other provisions.

In the past decade, even as St. Nicholas seemed to shrink amid its surroundings, its congregation has grown as the children and grandchildren of members have returned with their own families. At a recent Sunday service, the ground floor and balcony pews were overflowing with dapperly dressed elders and squealing babies as the priest chanted in Greek. [Church Map]

Others, including workers in the financial district, visited on Wednesdays, when the church opened to the public. As many as 100 people -- bankers, secretaries, tourists -- of all religions and ethnicities came to meditate during their lunch breaks, amid candles and soothing ecclesiastic music.

In addition to the saintly relics, Father Romas also hopes to recover the icons, chalices and crosses, including any fragments from a stained glass icon of a guardian angel said to have been designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany and installed during a renovation a decade ago. The building was insured for at least $1 million, says James Maniatis, the church's octogenarian president.

Members also plan on appealing to the Greek Orthodox community around the world. They've done it before: About 10 years ago, faced with a crumbling building, congregants embarked on a fund-raising campaign, initially sending letters to hundreds of Greek Americans with the name "Nicholas." The effort netted about $300,000 for renovations.

Yesterday, Father Romas led services at St. Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church in the Washington Heights section of northern Manhattan. About 40 St. Nicholas parishioners attended the service in the cavernous church. At one point, Father Romas held up a picture of the site where St. Nicholas once stood, now a sea of debris. As he spoke in Greek and halting English, sirens blared from the street outside.

Some quietly cried during the service. One parishioner passed around his wedding album after the service, full of pictures of the sanctuary with the Twin Towers in the background. "The church was an attachment," says George Liaskos, the congregation's vice president, over coffee and cookies in St. Spyridon's basement. "Everybody was so attached to it."

Write to Rachel Emma Silverman at rachel.silverman@wsj.com²URL for this Article: http://interactive.wsj.com/archive/retrieve.cgi?id=SB1000686176510939640.djm

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