City stepping up to help those who depend on collapsed New London church

NEW LONDON, CT (WFSB) - There is sadness and disbelief in New London as people watch one of the oldest churches get demolished.

The roof at the first congregational church collapsed Thursday. Fortunately, no one was hurt.

Meanwhile, the city is stepping up to help those who depend on the church.

The historic church is right in the middle of the city and it’s part of the city’s landscape.

It has been standing for more than 100 years and was very much a part of this community.

Engaging Heaven, which now owns the church, has been providing breakfast to the homeless every day.

The city has is now helping out. Friday morning, 75 breakfast sandwiches were handed out through the Salvation Army.

“This community really comes together, the communication, collaboration, the coordination. I always say New London is a community on the front porch, not the back deck. We are resilient, there is so much compassion and we’re very action oriented,” said Jeanne Milstein, Director of New London Human Services.

Milstein said the city will continue to provide breakfast meals to the homeless.

The city ‘s fire marshal is also looking into what caused this roof to collapse, but it could be a warning for other historic buildings.

Officials said the building was last inspected in 2019.

Engineers said these old buildings are vulnerable. Extreme temperatures and lots of moisture can make the mortar holding the bricks and stone porous and erode over time.

Eyewitness News spoke to a professor of civil engineering at Quinnipiac University.

She said the building may have been particularly at risk because of its tall steeple, which collapsed as well.

“Since this happened, after the collapse there has been, circulating on social media, a photo of the steeple and it appears to be compromised. We’ve also been getting reports of observations of this steeple looking like it was leaning. None of those reports were received by the city of New London and no one in the city of New London had any information that there was any structural problem with this structure,” said New London Mayor Mike Passero.

Officials said the building was last inspected in 2019.

I-Team investigation into the church:

The City of New London shared all of their inspection and permit documentation with us.

According to the fire marshal, there should be a fire inspection every 2 years. But the church hasn’t been inspected since 2019 he says, because of COVID 19.

The church was bought in 2015 by Engaging Heaven Ministries for $250,000.

The owner is James Levesque.

Levesque runs a course called “How to start a church from scratch in just 5 days.”

In November 2018, a routine fire inspection found the fire alarm system was failing but was later fixed in 2019.

According to documents, Levesque applied for several electrical permits for the wiring of two furnaces. They passed the inspection.

New London’s Fire Marshal said their inspections don’t look at any potential structural issues.

“It’s a very simple walk through the property. What we’re not able to do is see anything beyond any walls or areas you don’t have access to,” says New London Fire Marshal Vernon Skau.

As for the building department, they will only inspect the building if there is a complaint, there are no routine inspections.

“The short answer is there is no process for routine inspections of structures in the city,” says New London City Mayor Michael Passero.

The previous owners, the first Congregational Church commissioned an engineering study in 2011.

That study found the slate roof over the existing sanctuary was in poor condition and needed many repairs.

Friday, the city says the roof was fixed a few years ago.

The only permit for work on the roof we could find was from 2001.

In 2017, Channel 3 did a story with the owner of the church as he was trying to fundraise to get the clock tower working again.

The owner of the church had started a GoFundMe to raise $25,000 for the repairs - we found it only raised $770.

No permits were ever submitted for work on the clock.

We’ve been trying to reach the owner of Engaging Heaven, James Levesque. We have not been successful.

In 2023, the church was assessed for $1.6 million dollars. The mayor says they are still investigating insurance history on the property.