History - The Fire

On a cold, blustery night in January the history of St. Joseph's Prep changed suddenly. A fire broke out at 5:20am in the basement of the Stiles Street building. The fire was probably sparked by an electrical problem and initially the firemen thought they had it under control. However, soon the fire raged out of control and turned into 8-alarms with two hundred firemen fighting the blaze. The fire quickly engulfed the building and the freezing cold air turned the firefighter's water to ice. Half of the block was a total loss and so dangerous that demolition was begun immediately. The Prep’s hallmark marble staircase was snowcoated and icicles hung from the ceilings.

Luckily, the Jesuits rushed to the Thompson Street building and closed the fire doors, which saved what is now the Gesu School and important records and files in the Principal's office. Those doors are still visible under the stucco on the Gesu school building next to the facade of the new Fieldhouse.

The fire razed two-thirds of the Prep building, but students were not out of class long. Even as the clean up and demolition continued, classes opened a week after the fire using every square inch of Villiger Hall on Thompson Street. The band practiced in the empty pool, the cafeteria and ends of hallways were converted to classrooms, and unused classrooms in the Gesu Convent were used for Prep classes. Soon the planning began for a new school.