Feb. 20--State police are investigating a fire that severely damaged 10 historic cottages at the Chester Heights Camp Meeting in Delaware County.
No one was injured at the site, which is primarily occupied in the summer. The Chester Heights Fire Company responded to reports of the fire at 11:30 p.m..
The camp meeting, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, was struck by another serious fire in October, when three cottages and the meeting's two-story tabernacle structure were damaged.
Three people were arrested in connection with that blaze.
"It was like deja vu," said Pat Smith, the camp meeting president, who had been at the 30-acre campsite Saturday afternoon to get price estimates on cleanup from the October fire.
"They're historic cottages," Smith added. "Each one is different."
The camp meeting was founded in 1872 by a group of lay members of the Methodist Episcopal Church eager for a spiritual retreat away from the city.
Camp-goers lease the meeting's 65 cottages every summer and use them for religious activities. Some of the cottages, Smith said, have been in the same families for generations.
"It's not just a building and wood," she said. "It's priceless memories."
Smith added that 52 cottages are still usable after the two blazes.
Her own cottage has embers and ash covering its porch.
"God is good all the time. All the time God is good," Smith said, quoting from a sign at the entrance of the camp meeting. "We still believe that."
Anyone with information on the fire is asked to call State Police at the Media barracks at 484-840-1000.
Smith asked that anyone wishing to donate to the rebuilding of the meeting to send checks to the CHCM Restoration Fund, 40 Patricia Lane, Glen Mills, Pa. 19342
Contact staff writer Anthony Campisi at 215-854-5015, [email protected] or @campisia on Twitter.
Copyright 2012 - The Philadelphia Inquirer
