Three years after fire, historic church set to reopen in Arlington Co.

Three years after a fire, Arlington’s longest-running church is set to reopen

Three years after a fire damaged a historic church in Arlington, Virginia, Mt. Olivet United Methodist Church is set to officially reopen Saturday following massive renovations to its offices.

Senior Pastor Sara Porter Keeling had been at Mt. Olivet for just three months before Oct. 14, 2022, when a devastating electrical fire broke out in the church’s attic.

“I got a knock on the door by the fire chief,” she told WTOP. “Some of the first words I heard at like 3 in the morning were church and fire.”

Keeling said the cause was old and faulty wiring in the attic and while that was damaging, the water needed to put out the fires was more so.

“It was like being on the Titanic or something like that,” she said. “That level of water everywhere coming through the light fixtures. Just incredible.”

Luckily the fire did not spread to the main sanctuary and preschool next door, but they were required to hold services outside for a few weeks until everything was deemed safe.

For over three years, staff had to come up with workarounds to continue the church’s day-to-day operations.

“A good byproduct of COVID … We already had things in place. We already use Microsoft Teams and text messaging and zoom and those kinds of things,” Keeling said.

They had an added priority to their plate of rebuilding and renovating this particular building all while keeping its history intact.

“Mount Olivet is the oldest continually in use church in Arlington. We were founded in 1854 so that’s obviously right before the Civil War. Our property was used as a hospital during the Civil War by the union,” said Keeling, adding the original building was torn down and used for firewood as Union soldiers went through winter.

To make sure recent renovations were done correctly, they developed the “Phoenix Team” of staff members and volunteers to help design and improve the building after its destruction.

Named after the mythical bird that rises from the ashes of its own destruction, the team handled insurance claims, architectural work and liaising with contractors.

The HVAC, electrical and plumbing has all been replaced but they also redesigned offices and multipurpose rooms that will house choir practices, church meetings, Sunday school and adult bible study.

For the past three years, adult bible study has been held in the preschool “meaning they’ve been sitting in teeny, tiny chairs,” according to Keeling.

“Now they can joke on Sunday mornings of like ‘It’s not going to be the same when we’re not in our little chairs.’”

Versatility was in mind during the reconstruction.

“Making use of the space in ways that are more efficient. We have a multipurpose room upstairs now that can be used for small events or lectures or community association meetings,” she said.

Keeling described that for the past three and a half years she has heard many questions of concern about whether they had fully recovered from the fire, but the church is holding their grand reopening, In Full Bloom, on Saturday.

“We really wanted to have this be a larger community celebration,” Keeling said. “When the fire happened, there was so much beautiful concern and care from the Arlington community around us, around making sure that we were OK.”

“We want to really be able to say thank you to the community, to our nonprofit partners, to the first responders, to everybody that’s worked with us on the rebuilding process,” she concluded. “Come and see all that Mt. Olivet is, all that we’re doing in the community.”