The Burning of St. Joseph's Cathedral           St. Joseph's Cathedral 150 Farmington Ave. Hartford, CT It was a cold, dark winter morning fifty years ago on Monday, December 31, 1956, when the engineer entered the lower sacristy door at 5:00 a.m. to start the boilers that would heat the vast Cathedral of St. Joseph. Patrick Keely's St Patrick's Church at Ann & High Streets, Hartford, had burned just after midnight the previous morning. St. Joseph's Cathedral had been searched Sunday night to make sure it was secure. Nothing appeared amiss and the Cathedral had been locked for the night. At 6:00 a.m., the sacristan entered, smelled smoke, but found nothing. Fire Department Chaplain Fr. Francis O'Neill entered for Mass just before 7:00 a.m. Both he and the sacristan searched again. Finding nothing, they decided it was a boiler smell. As the early morning Mass was being said, smoke began to drift across the recessed side Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament. After Communion, smoke became more visible. Mrs. Frances Devine, who was attending Mass that morning, approached Deputy Fire Chief McSweegan, also attending Mass, and notified him of what she was observing. Chief McSweegan dashed to the sacristy and with Fr. O'Neill went to the Lower Cathedral worship space. An acrid smell and the crackling of flames was heard in the basement ceiling above. This was below the main altar and caused the first alarm to be pulled. The following photos illustrate the end of this noble gothic structure: Patrick C. Keely's design for the twenty-eight-foot-high oak and walnut pulpit. The pulpit was topped by a walnut-carved figure of Christ Teaching. The Four Evangelists and Two Great Apostles were placed along the lower edge of the canopy. (Keely Society Archives) This pulpit photo also shows Joseph Sibbel's sculpture of St. Jerome and his Stations of the Cross which were unique to St. Joseph's Cathedral. Keely's ornate plaster designs and triforium gallery areas are also visible. (Dedication Book) P.C. Keely's design for the grand Hook & Hastings Cathedral organ. Additions were made in 1917 and the organ was enlarged in 1939 by the Austin Organ Company of Hartford. (Dedication Book) Interior of the Hartford Cathedral with its richly patterned wood ceiling. The noted German eccesiastical painter, William Lamprecht, created the transept crossing ceiling painting, "The Sermon on the Mount."(Keely Society Archives) Firemen ventilate the Cathedral Sacristy roof around 8:30 a.m., seeking the source of the fire. At this time fire was traveling up through the interior wood and plaster lathe partitions. This west view, from over a quarter mile away, shows the Cathedral towers shrouded in thick billowing smoke as the fire seethes under the great slate roof. Flames leap from the roof of the Chancel. The Tyrolean Art Glass Company's stained glass treasures begin to burst from the intense heat. The Cathedral explodes in flames. The raging fire moves toward the Farmington Avenue facade. The twin towers are next to be in flames. The facade of the Cathedral shows flames bursting from the Rose Window over the main entrance. Its central roundel depicted St. Cecilia and the sixteen pentafoils held depictions of angels playing various instruments. The Hook & Hastings organ has been consumed. January 1, 1957, dawned cold, brisk, but sunny as the majestic ruins of St. Joseph's Cathedral tower over Farmington Avenue. New York Engineers presented three scenarios for the rebuilding of the Cathedral. The Archives document that the walls were structurally sound. While it could have been repaired, Archdiocesean officials chose to demolish the Portland brown structure, and replace it with a 1960s design. A view of the interior ruins from the east side doorway. It was through this door that many of the Cathedral staff entered the Cathedral from the Keely designed rectory. Joseph Sibbel's damaged figure of St. Gregory the Great is seen at the transept crossing pillar. Beneath the western rose window can be seen the remains of Sibbel's monumental bas-relief of "Christ teaching the Doctors in the Temple." The eight arcade openings of the western rose window presented life scenes of the Patriarch Joseph, of the Old Testament. The sixteen pentafoil openings illustrated scenes from the life of St. Joseph, the Cathedral's patron.