Mercy mission for a church arsonist - Eden Hall Chapel News Articles at Opacity

Burning down the old Eden Hall chapel was just the start of Nicholas Lawrence’s problems with the law last summer.

While facing numerous felony charges, including arson, and free on bail, Lawrence was arrested twice more — once on charges of beating his 7-month-old daughter and again for supposedly punching the mother of his twin daughter and son.

He was just 19 at the time of all three incidents.

On June 19, a Philadelphia judge decided to spare Lawrence of having to serve state prison time.

Although a prosecuting attorney was seeking a sentence of two and a half to five years in the state pen for the defendant, Common Pleas Court Judge Pamela Pryor Dembe instead gave Lawrence five to 23 months in a city prison work-release program. Lawrence will be able to spend most of his days outside the confines of jail.

A reporting-probation period of five years will begin upon Lawrence’s release from custody of the Philadelphia Prison System.

According to Assistant District Attorney Namratha Ravikant, the standard sentencing range for the most serious crime that Lawrence committed, causing or risking a catastrophe, is 22 to 36 months in jail, plus or minus 12 months. Lawrence, of the 1000 block of Hoven Road in Bustleton, had no prior criminal record and pleaded guilty or no contest to charges stemming from all three incidents, thereby allowing the court to supercede trials in the cases. His trouble with the law began on July 8 when he and several other teens broke into the boarded-up, 157-year-old Eden Hall chapel and set two fires that effectively ended a local family’s attempt to restore the historic landmark to its former glory. The chapel is within city-owned Fluehr Park in East Torresdale.

At one time, the Gothic-revival house of worship was the centerpiece of an elite Catholic boarding school for girls operated by the Society of the Sacred Heart, a semi-cloistered order of nuns. The parents of St. Katharine Drexel, the Philly banker’s daughter whose decades of religious service led to her canonization, helped finance its construction and once were buried on the site.

At its peak, the institution featured several buildings, including a house and gymnasium. After the sisters left in 1969, the property ended up in the city’s hands and became a park, largely in tribute to advocacy by the late Joseph C. Fluehr Sr., a local resident and real estate professional after whom the park is named.

Several fires, including a large blaze in 1979, destroyed most of the buildings, but the chapel survived.

Early last year, Fluehr’s children and other descendants created a non-profit organization and began to explore the idea of restoring the chapel. They tried to improve security on the oft-vandalized site with fencing and were paying for an architectural assessment when Lawrence and his co-conspirators torched the place.

Lawrence’s five accomplices were juveniles at the time and have not been named publicly. All were charged in the case and pleaded delinquent to the offenses. Two fires were set inside the chapel shortly before midnight. Investigators believe that the vandals used vodka to start one blaze in the basement and fuel from an overturned generator to start the other on the first floor. The arsonists then fled.

The fire soon spread to the roof, forcing firefighters battling the flames to leave the building for safety reasons. It was classified as a three-alarm fire. Later, Lawrence allegedly bragged about the crime to an acquaintance, who told authorities about the conversation.

On Sept. 6, less than two weeks after Lawrence was ordered to stand trial for the chapel fire, he was arrested again for allegedly beating his daughter. According to Ravikant, the prosecutor, the twins were in Lawrence’s care for about five hours. When he returned the children to their mother, the girl had a "handprint on her face," bruising and lacerations, Ravikant said. Lawrence was charged with assault, reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child.

On Oct. 19, Lawrence was arrested a third time and accused of violating a protection-from-abuse order held by the mother of his children and also assaulting her. He punched the woman, Ravikant said. In January, Lawrence pleaded guilty to several felonies in the arson case, including causing or risking a catastrophe, conspiracy, criminal mischief and criminal trespass. He also pleaded guilty to possessing an instrument of crime, a misdemeanor.

Last week, he pleaded guilty in the case involving his ex-girlfriend and no contest in the case involving his daughter. Legally, a no-contest plea is punishable the same as a guilty plea.

Lawrence’s punishment in all three cases is included in the sentence of prison work release and probation imposed by Judge Dembe.

The Eden Hall chapel, meanwhile, is gone for good. After assessing the damage caused by the fire, leaders of the restoration effort and officials with the Fairmount Park Commission, which controls the site, concluded that the chapel is essentially unsalvageable. However, no funding has been allocated to raze the building, which is missing much of its roof and is exposed to the elements.

This article was written by William Kenny and published by Philly News on Monday, July 2nd 2007 and NOT owned by nor affiliated with opacity.us, but are recorded here solely for educational use. The photographs featured in the article are randomly selected from the Eden Hall Chapel galleries on opacity.us unless noted otherwise; they may not directly relate to the article subject matter except for the site location - any other relation is purely coincidental.


	Mercy mission for a church arsonist Monday, July 2nd 2007 William Kenny Philly News Burning down the old Eden Hall chapel was just the start of Nicholas Lawrence’s problems with the law last summer. While facing numerous felony charges, including arson, and free on bail, Lawrence was arrested twice more — once on charges of beating his 7-month-old daughter and again for supposedly punching the mother of his twin daughter and son. He was just 19 at the time of all three incidents. On June 19, a Philadelphia judge decided to spare Lawrence of having to serve state prison time. Although a prosecuting attorney was seeking a sentence of two and a half to five years in the state pen for the defendant, Common Pleas Court Judge Pamela Pryor Dembe instead gave Lawrence five to 23 months in a city prison work-release program. Lawrence will be able to spend most of his days outside the confines of jail. A reporting-probation period of five years will begin upon Lawrence’s release from custody of the Philadelphia Prison System. According to Assistant District Attorney Namratha Ravikant, the standard sentencing range for the most serious crime that Lawrence committed, causing or risking a catastrophe, is 22 to 36 months in jail, plus or minus 12 months. Lawrence, of the 1000 block of Hoven Road in Bustleton, had no prior criminal record and pleaded guilty or no contest to charges stemming from all three incidents, thereby allowing the court to supercede trials in the cases. His trouble with the law began on July 8 when he and several other teens broke into the boarded-up, 157-year-old Eden Hall chapel and set two fires that effectively ended a local family’s attempt to restore the historic landmark to its former glory. The chapel is within city-owned Fluehr Park in East Torresdale. At one time, the Gothic-revival house of worship was the centerpiece of an elite Catholic boarding school for girls operated by the Society of the Sacred Heart, a semi-cloistered order of nuns. The parents of St. Katharine Drexel, the Philly banker’s daughter whose decades of religious service led to her canonization, helped finance its construction and once were buried on the site. At its peak, the institution featured several buildings, including a house and gymnasium. After the sisters left in 1969, the property ended up in the city’s hands and became a park, largely in tribute to advocacy by the late Joseph C. Fluehr Sr., a local resident and real estate professional after whom the park is named. Several fires, including a large blaze in 1979, destroyed most of the buildings, but the chapel survived. Early last year, Fluehr’s children and other descendants created a non-profit organization and began to explore the idea of restoring the chapel. They tried to improve security on the oft-vandalized site with fencing and were paying for an architectural assessment when Lawrence and his co-conspirators torched the place. Lawrence’s five accomplices were juveniles at the time and have not been named publicly. All were charged in the case and pleaded delinquent to the offenses. Two fires were set inside the chapel shortly before midnight. Investigators believe that the vandals used vodka to start one blaze in the basement and fuel from an overturned generator to start the other on the first floor. The arsonists then fled. The fire soon spread to the roof, forcing firefighters battling the flames to leave the building for safety reasons. It was classified as a three-alarm fire. Later, Lawrence allegedly bragged about the crime to an acquaintance, who told authorities about the conversation. On Sept. 6, less than two weeks after Lawrence was ordered to stand trial for the chapel fire, he was arrested again for allegedly beating his daughter. According to Ravikant, the prosecutor, the twins were in Lawrence’s care for about five hours. When he returned the children to their mother, the girl had a "handprint on her face," bruising and lacerations, Ravikant said. Lawrence was charged with assault, reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child. On Oct. 19, Lawrence was arrested a third time and accused of violating a protection-from-abuse order held by the mother of his children and also assaulting her. He punched the woman, Ravikant said. In January, Lawrence pleaded guilty to several felonies in the arson case, including causing or risking a catastrophe, conspiracy, criminal mischief and criminal trespass. He also pleaded guilty to possessing an instrument of crime, a misdemeanor. Last week, he pleaded guilty in the case involving his ex-girlfriend and no contest in the case involving his daughter. Legally, a no-contest plea is punishable the same as a guilty plea. Lawrence’s punishment in all three cases is included in the sentence of prison work release and probation imposed by Judge Dembe. The Eden Hall chapel, meanwhile, is gone for good. After assessing the damage caused by the fire, leaders of the restoration effort and officials with the Fairmount Park Commission, which controls the site, concluded that the chapel is essentially unsalvageable. However, no funding has been allocated to raze the building, which is missing much of its roof and is exposed to the elements. This article was written by William Kenny and published by Philly News on Monday, July 2nd 2007 and NOT owned by nor affiliated with opacity.us, but are recorded here solely for educational use. The photographs featured in the article are randomly selected from the Eden Hall Chapel galleries on opacity.us unless noted otherwise; they may not directly relate to the article subject matter except for the site location - any other relation is purely coincidental.