Firefighters knock down fire at vacant, historic east-side Methodist church that closed last year
Firefighters knocked down a fire Friday at Summerfield United Methodist Church, a vacant east-side church that closed last June.
A Milwaukee Fire Department official said the cause of the fire was still under investigation. No one was injured, and crews were heading home about an hour after they were called to the church at North Cass Street and East Juneau Avenue about 5:15 p.m.
The fire was on the second floor of the parsonage, the official said. A video posted to X, formerly Twitter, showed smoke billowing out of upstairs windows. The parsonage, or pastor's house, is connected to the church building.
Summerfield was the oldest Methodist congregation in Wisconsin. The historic building, constructed in 1904 as the successor to Summerfield’s first church, closed after local United Methodist Church leaders determined the building needed an estimated $1.3 million in repairs. Its congregation had dwindled to just 11 members, none under 65 years old.
Summerfield was the birthplace of Goodwill Industries of Wisconsin and held some of the city’s first Narcotics Anonymous meetings. Members served hot meals several times a week to the homeless and hungry until its June 2023 closure.
The local district of the United Methodist Church — the denomination's governing body in southeast Wisconsin —still owns the property, and it has been for sale, said Bob Sarsfield, the former chairman of Summerfield's trustees committee. Sarsfield was the church's de facto administrator, handyman and one of its biggest champions.
Reached Friday evening, Sarsfield said he did not know what caused the fire, as he had heard the electricity was mostly shut off. A management company was put in charge of keeping the building secure, he said. He heard that a few recent break-ins had occurred but didn't know what might have been taken.
"There's hardly anything left in there," he said.
Sarsfield recently had been going through boxes of old photographs. He was looking at photos of the church sanctuary, and his mother singing in the choir, and feeling nostalgic.
"I have all these old memories," he said. "I hope it's not anything disastrous."
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee firefighters battle fire at closed United Methodist church
