ST. LOUIS — It's been more than two weeks since a devastating fire decimated a former church turned skate park.
SK8 Liborious was a popular spot for skaters but also a place for artists.
The fire wasn't only devastating for them but also for one small business owner. Madelyn Lumpe described it as "devastating."
The fire completely ruined some of her inventory for her vintage store and severely damaged other pieces.
While her storage room did not fully burn down, a lot of her stuff was badly damaged from water and soot.
The loss will cost thousands of dollars, but for Lumpe, it's more than just the money.
"I feel like I'm definitely more of a memory collector than I am a vintage dealer, so just having to let go of that was really hard for me. Any time I can pass on a story or a memory to the next owner, I always do. I have so many photos. I have so many emails from families that are just so grateful for what I do, and having to just watch that devastation happen, it just hit me in such a different way, I feel like," she said.
Salvaging strangers' memories has been a passion of Lumpe's for quite some time, she said.
"Here I am at 33, living my high school pipe dream," she said.
Lumpe opened up her shop, Black Rabbit Vintage in South St. Louis in October of 2021.
"I really love being able to bring things back to life, and everything comes with a story — that's really my favorite thing. Actually, how I get a lot of my things is I meet with the families. I meet with the people that originally owned them, so I get those pictures. I get those stories, and I get to just kind of help them — not necessarily let go, but just put it somewhere else," she said.
Unfortunately, though, in the early morning hours of June 29, 2023, some of the memories Lumpe had brought back to life turned to ash.
"It was devastating. I have video of just walking up the steps, getting in there, and just seeing so much of it just crumbled and just completely wet. It was just awful," she said.
Lumpe stored most of her shop's inventory inside the now burned down SK8 Liborious in North City.
"Unfortunately, I kept a lot of my really good stuff there. I lost a lot of really good vintage fur, leather, lace and silk — and some very big brand names," she said.
Now, pieces of peoples' pasts have to be thrown away completely. Something, Lumpe said, hits harder than the financial impact.
"It was just really hard because I really do collect memories, and I felt like I had to throw away so many people's past and memories. Really, that was just like such a gut punch," she said.
For Lumpe, though, the pain goes beyond the strangers' memories lost — since she made so many of her own inside the former church.
"I've seen a lot of shows in that basement there. I celebrated the lives of a lot of friends there. It's been a pillar of that community and that part of my life for a really long time," she said.
While Lumpe doesn't know what the future of the park holds, one thing she is sure of is the past. It's a past of strangers' memories Lumpe doesn't want to stop making new.
"I want to be able to keep doing that, and I want to be able to keep those memories going on," she said.
Lumpe is hoping to raise $10 thousand to help cover the losses since the pieces she is trying to keep are going to cost a lot of time and money to salvage.
Plus, Lumpe said, her insurance will not cover her losses because the inventory lost wasn't kept in her shop.
You can help Lumpe through her GoFundMe here.