After theft of $150,000 crown, a historic East Market church fights to stay open

One January night, a burglar smashed a century-old stained glass window to steal a gold crown. The unsolved theft of the $150,000 jewel-laden relic, which rested atop a marble statue of the Virgin Mary and was donated by parishioners more than a century ago after a fire, shocked and saddened the congregants of St. John the Evangelist Church in East Market.

Long known as “the worker’s church” for ministering to the spiritual needs of downtown laborers — and, later, shoppers, tourists, and conventioneers, along with the doctors and nurses of nearby Thomas Jefferson University Hospital — St. John’s now faces another stark challenge: Its survival.

Still reeling from the theft of the crown, the historic parish, which sits just a block from City Hall, is struggling to raise funds to address badly needed repairs — without them, it may need to close its doors.

While thousands of Center City churchgoers, from construction workers to judges, still flock to St. John’s during their lunch breaks on holy days like Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, the parish remains one of the poorest in the Archdiocese.

St. John’s has started a capital campaign to raise $1,000,000 to rebuild an unsafe, crumbling patio and replace an ancient, sputtering electrical system that an engineer recently said was a miracle to still be working — and long past the point of resurrection.

“The guy looked at this and he said, ‘You know, Father, if you want proof of the existence of God, this is it,” said Father Tom Betz, pastor of St. John the Evangelist, pointing at the half-century-old transformer. “I hate to say it’s a race against time but it is because we need to get the money before this goes down. It’s decades past its expected life.”

St. John’s does not expect financial help from the Archdiocese, Betz said. Not with so many parishes struggling. Since starting the capital campaign in February, St. John’s has raised almost $500,00 toward its $1,000,000 goal. Pledges can be made on the church website.

Nestled amid 13th Street, the striking Gothic Revival church opened in 1832, as the fifth Catholic Church in Philadelphia. Built on the then-outskirts of the growing city, it served as the cathedral for the diocese before the opening of Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in 1864. By the turn of the 20th century, the church found itself in the heart of downtown’s exploding department store and business district.

“It became the downtown shoppers’ and workers’ parish,” Betz said.

For decades, St. John’s held a 2:45 a.m. Sunday Mass for printers and factory workers getting off their shifts, and, eventually, late-night bar goers who wanted to squeeze in Mass before sunup.

“It was called the printers’ Mass, but it became the drunkards’ Mass,” Betz said.

Generations of shoppers and workers who rode the trolley and trains downtown, and later, the convention goers who crowded nearby hotels, stopped in St. John’s for confession or Mass or just to pray at the statue adorned with the sparkling crown.

The crown dates to around 1900, when the church was rebuilt after a fire sparked in a Wanamaker’s warehouse killed three firemen, who are all memorialized in plaques outside. The blaze destroyed the church interior save for the marble statue of Mary, carved in Italy in the 1850s.

“In gratitude, the people of the church collected their jewelry and gold and they made this beautiful crown,” Betz said.

Created by James E. Caldwell & Co. around 1900, the elaborately patterned crown was encrusted with diamonds, turquoise, pearls, rubies, sapphires, and other precious heirlooms donated by parishioners, said St. John’s historian, Anne Kirkwood.

“For so long, it was part of the life of the parish,” she said.

Then it was gone.

Surveillance footage captured the startling sound of smashing glass as the thief squeezed through a church window in the early hours of Jan. 11. The unidentified burglar used a chair to reach the crown, which was at least 10 feet above the ground, and was gone in less than seven minutes.

“Police think they knew what they were doing,” Betz said.

Officer Tanya Little, a Philadelphia Police Department spokesperson, said investigators could not comment on the active investigation.

Insurance would only cover the cost of the stolen crown if the church decided to replace it.

“But how could you ever replace it?” said Betz.

And while the church would never have thought to sell the crown to cover its bills, the loss represented another blow.

Betz is hopeful. After all, about 400 people still fill the pews on Sunday, and St. John’s maintains active ministries in the neighborhood. The nearby St. John’s Hospice shelter and drug treatment center, founded in 1963, and now run by Catholic Social Services, serves over 133,000 meals a year. Apart from the parish, the hospice is not in danger.

Tootsie Iovine-D’Ambrosio, a longtime parishioner and former Reading Terminal Market merchant, is organizing a May 3 fundraiser at the terminal for the church. Details are available through the parish office at 215-563-4145, she said.

After losing the loss of the treasured crown, Betz shudders to think what the closure of the actual church could mean.

“I think this is an anchor in East Market,” he said. “Macy’s is closing. I think the loss of St. John’s would even be a greater loss.”