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Firefighters douse the collapsed remains of an empty former  church at the corner of Miller and Cowell streets in the Lower Hill District early Tuesday morning.
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Three-alarm fire destroys century-old church in Hill District, first home of Ebenezer Baptist Church

Darrell Sapp/Post-Gazette

Three-alarm fire destroys century-old church in Hill District, first home of Ebenezer Baptist Church

A three-alarm fire destroyed a former Ebenezer Baptist Church in Pittsburgh’s Lower Hill District early Tuesday morning.

Firefighters first responded to the blaze before 3 a.m. at 85 Miller St. at the corner of Colwell Street, according to Pittsburgh public safety spokesman Chris Togneri.

No injuries were reported.

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The fire quickly went to three alarms. Pittsburgh Deputy Chief Michael Mullen told Post-Gazette news partner KDKA-TV that the roof of the church sanctuary eventually collapsed, allowing firefighters better access to fight the blaze, “which actually was a good thing.”

Firefighters were able to bring it under control by 4 a.m., although crews remained on the scene to continue pumping water “into the bell tower and other areas,” Mr. Togneri said.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

The church, which was the original Ebenezer Baptist Church, had been empty for a number of years. It hadn’t been used as a church since the congregation moved a few blocks away to Wylie Avenue, its current location, around a century ago.

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Into the 1930s, newspapers referred to the structure as Liberty Hall and announced meetings there of the local branch of an organization led by black nationalist Marcus Garvey.

By 1955, a company called M. Mallinger’s owned the whole building and used it for bottle-washing, manufacturing and storage.

The building has been empty since the early 2000s.

The city owns the property, which it bought for the Urban Redevelopment Authority on behalf of a local developer in 2012. Tim McNulty, spokesman for Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, said that remediation and demolition turned out to be far more costly than the URA could afford.

“These kinds of former industrial properties are hard to address,” he said in 2016, when the Post-Gazette chronicled the histories of empty churches. “There are a lot of unfunded preservation efforts out there.”

First Published: April 24, 2018, 10:25 a.m.

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Firefighters douse the collapsed remains of an empty former church at the corner of Miller and Cowell streets in the Lower Hill District early Tuesday morning.  (Darrell Sapp/Post-Gazette)
Pittsburgh firefighters pour water into the sanctuary of an empty former church at the corner of Miller and Colwell streets in the Lower Hill District Tuesday morning.  (Darrell Sapp/Post-Gazette)
Firefighters on the scene of the fire in the former Ebenezer Baptist church in the Hill District Tuesday morning. The building hasn't been used as a church for a century.  (KDKA-TV)
The fire at a former church was brought under control by 4 a.m. but fire crews remained on the scene in the Lower Hill District for several hours.  (Darrell Sapp/Post-Gazette)
Smoke rises from the collapsed sanctuary of an empty former church that caught fire early Tuesday at the corner of Miller and Colwell streets in the Lower Hill District.  (Darrell Sapp/Post-Gazette)
Darrell Sapp/Post-Gazette
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