not before the bell was moved to the Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas. It returned to the Middle Collegiate Church – by now at Second Avenue – when St. Nicholas was demolished in December 1949. Other existing churches tracing their congregational founding to the same first Collegiate Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of 1628 include West End Collegiate Church (built 1892), located on the corner of West End Avenue and 77th Street; Marble Collegiate Church, at Fifth Avenue and 29th Street; and the Fort Washington Collegiate Church, at Magaw Place and 181st Street. All are part of the Reformed Church in America. Fire On December 5, 2020, a six-alarm fire spread from an adjacent vacant building, engulfed the church structure, and left intact only the exterior stone walls. The fire, accidentally caused by electrical wiring, took nearly eight hours to extinguish. The church roof collapsed, the Tiffany windows were blown out, and the sanctuary was destroyed. Only the "Liberty Bell" and the exterior survived, including the tower in which the bell hung. A senior minister of the church described the aftermath as "a gutted building full of smoke". New York City Fire Department Assistant Chief John Hodgens described the church and the adjacent building as "total losses", and their structural stability was being evaluated by engineers in the wake of the blaze. The fate of the church building was initially unclear, but the ministry will continue, and fundraising to rebuild commenced. Mayor Bill de Blasio pledged the city's assistance with rebuilding. Services had been conducted online since March 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and continued after the blaze. The church was insured for fire, and received about $500,000 in donations by Christmas 2020, but the funds were still "nowhere close to what's needed for rebuilding". References External links Official website Churches completed in 1891 19th-century Protestant churches Churches in Manhattan Gothic Revival church buildings in New York City Religious organizations established in 1628 17th-century Calvinist and Reformed churches Former Dutch Reformed churches in New York (state) Reformed Church in America churches East Village, Manhattan 1628 establishments in the Dutch Empire Building and structure fires in New York City Church fires in the United States Second Avenue (Manhattan) Building collapses in 2020 Building collapses in the United States Building collapses caused by fire 2020 fires in the United States