By Cathy Ingalls, Albany Regional Museum board member
Nearly 31 years ago at 7:47 p.m. on Oct. 29, 1989, then Albany Democrat-Herald reporter Marilyn Montgomery Smith and her husband Stan, chief photographer for the paper, were home watching television when the telephone rang.
Professionally framed historic photograph of St. Mary's church fire, 1989. Photographer, Terry Gleason. Museum Collection: 2012.024.001
On the other end of the line was a sports reporter, who told Marilyn the 91-year-old St. Mary’s Catholic Church on Eighth Avenue and Ellsworth Street was burning. Because the wooden structure was less than a block from the Democrat-Herald, the fire could be seen easily by the sports reporter.
“We went immediately but were a little late to the game because the fire moved so fast,” Marilyn recently recalled. “We were there in time for Stan to shoot the bell tower collapsing. (Photographer) Terry Gleason shot the best photos as he lives a few blocks away and was there much sooner.”
It only took an hour for the fire to level the primarily Carpenter Gothic church, which is thought to have been patterned after an abbey in France.
Putting aside her feelings about the church and its destroyed history, Marilyn started interviewing parishioners, neighbors and the police. When she had enough information, she went to the D-H and began writing.
At the time Cecil Wink, a battalion chief with the Albany Fire Department, told another reporter that “I heard the alarm, walked into my office and the whole sky was lit up. When we pulled up, every window was filled with flames. There was no stopping it.”
For weeks after the fire, Marilyn followed the investigation into the search for who caused the blaze, the arsonist’s eventual apprehension and finally his trial and sentencing.
Transient Bruce Scott Erbs, 43, a church soup kitchen regular, was charged with first-degree arson. Prosecutors said he started the fire by running a cigarette lighter along the bottom of a large tapestry that hung behind the altar of the church.
A Linn County jury convicted Erbs in April 1990, and he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Already, Erbs had spent most of his life behind bars.
Following his release in 2003, it became difficult to find housing for him because of his convicted sex offender status. For a while, he stayed in a tent on the grounds of the Linn County Sheriff’s Office. Erbs died of pneumonia on July 31, 2015. He had repented publicly for his crime.
For compensation, the church received a $1.9 million insurance settlement. That money covered new construction while $170,000 went toward investigating the fire, cleanup and disposal of debris.
The church also was on the hook for the $10,000 required to move and store equipment, including religious objects and to rent locations for services while a replacement was constructed.
About three years after the fire, a new 35,500-square-foot complex designed by Corvallis architect Chris Jeppsen that included a 720-seat sanctuary, a plaza containing a bronze Madonna with welcoming arms and a bell tower that rose 78-feet from the ground was dedicated on Sept. 13, 1992.
At the time, he said of his design, “I wanted the feeling of being uplifted. It’s an emotion that’s part of worship.”
Before the new church could open, St. Mary’s held Mass at several places, including the United Presbyterian Church, Linn-Benton Community College, the St. Mary’s gym, the former Sears store (now a state office building) at Second Avenue and Lyon Street and the Memorial Middle School cafeteria.
Image shows St. Mary's Church facade and surrounding area before it was destroyed by fire. Photographer Donald Bacher. Museum Collection: 2014.001.013
St. Mary’s Parish was founded on Sept. 28, 1885, by the Rev. Louis Metayer, who was sent to minister to the Catholics in Albany and the surrounding area.
More information about the St. Mary’s fire can be found at the Albany Regional Museum, 136 Lyon St. S. Currently, the museum is closed because of the coronavirus but when it reopens hours will be from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.