The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1875-03-09
THE CHURCH RUIN.
THE APPEARANCE OF THE BUILDINa-THE
MANNER BY WHICH EXIT WAS MADE-THl
REPORT OF THE ARCHITECT.

THE APPEARANCE OF THE BUILDING-THE
MANNER BY WHICH EXIT WAS MADE-THE
REPORT OF THE AROHI rECr.
From the New York Times OF the 9th ult.
some additional facts are obtained of the
church destruction already described in the
Sentinel: A broken window of the church
opening on City Hall Place is the only evil
dence of the disaster visible from the street
excepting the high broken wall. The wall is
five feet from the church, and almost sixty
feet in height, and the portion that fell
leaves gap of nearly triangular form in its
rear and upper portion. The root of the
church is about thirty feet below the top Of
the wall, and is broken in two places. e
side the church the scene is one of the wild
est confusion, although the numerous arti-
cles OF clothing, umbrellas, etc, which
were scattered over the floor have been
collected in little room in the
northwest corner of the building. Daylight
pours through the two holes in the roof on
mass of bricks, plaster, broken timbers
and other debris, that encumbers the eastern
gallery. This debris is scattered far over
the floor Of the church and the Enclosure
about the altar, showing that fully one-half
the congregation sat under the appalling
shower. In the gallery, the bricks that fell
are scattered and broken, and the wood
work OF the pews is in many places shattered
into minute fragments. Three rows of
pews are entirely broken away, and others
are badly splintered. In one place caps
some, measuring about "a by u by inches,
ia leaning against a seat. The holes in the
roof and the ceiling are jagged and irregular,
one being fully ten feet long, of an irregular
oval shape, and the other perhaps two feet
longer. The root is
COMPOSED OF INCH sCANTLING
laid over beams about six inches square,
and covered with preparation of felt. The
ceiling is of lath and plaster, and between 1t
and the gable roof is huge garnet, which
has been put to no use, and has no floor.
Down through these two shells the mass of
brick fell from fully thirty feet above. The
main girder of the roof was, fortunately,
Had that been broken, the en-
tire roof would, doubtless, have fallen. There
were about $50 person in each gallery and
nearly 500 on the main floor. The panic
was naturally greatest on the east SIDE
where the accident had occurred, and on
this side were the most of those who were
injured. The hall, where the staircase is,
is about twelve feet square. The door
through which the people had to pass is
about four feet wide, and the staircase is
about the same width. Into this hall an
other door opens from the organ lott. The
stairs run down half way in an easterly
direction and then, following the wall, turn
north at a right angle. Down this narrow
staircase the crowd fairly tell, and in an in
slant the upper part of the trap was full and
there was no egress below, for the vestibule
was also full. The narrow landing above,
between the two doors, bears witness that on
these few planks was desperate struggle
for life. The walls and floor, and parts ofthe
woodwork around are stained with blood. In
the hall below the frail railing is broken off
and lies on the floor. Over a hundred per-
sons were jammed in together on the stair
case and many had to be lifted up bodily
from the top. The church is usually emptied
in five minutes, even when IL Is crowded.
But Thursday night, when it held fifty or a
hundred persons more than its seating Ca
pacity, and each person was
STRIVING TO GO OUT FIRST,
over ten minutes expired before the main
part of the house was emptied, and then the
crowd on the staircase had not found their
way out. Mr.. John b. Shook the architect,
stated TO Times reporter that he had not
been altogether satisfied with the rate at
which the work had gone on under the con-
tract which he had made with the builder.
Il have tried,' said he, ''to hurry up the
wOrkmen by telling them that ths wall was
liable TO iell, but l can not say that
thought it was really liable to. III
suppose they will make an excuse of
the cold weather for the length Of time they
have been at work. i don't give that as the
reason, but 1 suppose they will make that
excuse. / think tnat the wind was the
cause. 1t was disaster that was unforeseen. |
OF course ir is easy enough to say, now it has
how it could have been avoided, |
but 1 did not look for anything of the kind |
[ viewed the walls carefully, and could not |
find any break or evidence of unsoundness !
in them. The only sad feature about it is |
the loss of life. All the rest can be remedied
with money"