Still haven't found the exact date of the fire that destroyed the Madonna House. However this occured on August 19, 1956. Madonna House is on the left, the dark building casting a shadow. You can see that there is a rooftop play area present.
WAREHOUSE BLAZE SLOWS BRIDGE LANE
A four-alarm fire did extensive damage last night to a five-story warehouse at Water and Pike Streek on the Lower East Side. Six families from nearby buildings and fourteen nuns from Madonna House, a Roman Catholic Settlement House at 173 Cherry Street, were evacuated as a precautionary measure. There were no injuries. The fire broke out shortly before 8:40 P.M. in the building at 452 Water Street occupied by the Hadshian Export Clothing Co. The cause was not immediately determined. The blaze, confined to the building's two top floors, was declared under control at 9:54P.M. Firemen fighting the fire from the upper south roadway of the Manhattan Bridge, twenty-five feet north of the used clothing warehouse, slowed Brooklyn bound traffic, but did not halt it. Subway trains on the bridge ran normally
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I attended Madonna House in 1958-59, so it couldn't have burned down in 1956. I think it burned down along with the "rag factory" later in the 60's --maybe 1963-64??
I agreed with you. I too attended Madonna House during that time and I am sure that the fire was not in 1956. I used to love this place. My siblings and I would go there after school from PS 177.
I attended the Madonna House in 1948-49 Happy Memories!!!!
The Madonna House & the other 2 brownstone houses attached to it, were owned by my grandmother's family. I lived in 181 Cherry with my grandparents & attended P.S. 177, until the 6th grade, when they moved us to P.S. 126 on Catherine St. The Madonna House was closed by the time I went to live with my grandparents in 1961.
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