A box of crayons, a worn red hat: Memorial exhibit to Fairmount fire victims opens at City Hall

The city on Wednesday unveiled a public exhibit at City Hall memorializing the 12 family members who died last year in a fire in Fairmount, one of Philadelphia’s deadliest tragedies in a generation. The tribute brings the McDonald family to life through personal photos, videos, stuffed animals, and poems — among toy trucks and an open box of crayons sit photos of Taniesha Clara Robinson, 3 years old and nicknamed “Tee-Tee,” with a pacifier in her mouth, and her mother and aunt, Rosalee Nicole McDonald, 33, and Virginia Maria Thomas, 30, smiling while showing off pregnant bellies.

“It’s for the family, first and foremost. This is about creating some space for them to deal with their trauma and possibly heal,” said Tu Huynh, who cocurated the exhibit with Vanessa McDonald, the family’s matriarch, and her daughter Estelle, whose words are incorporated throughout.

The devastating fire erupted in the early morning hours of Jan. 5, 2022, likely after a 5-year-old playing with a lighter accidentally lit a Christmas tree aflame on the second floor of the building where the family lived, officials said. The blaze spread to the third floor of the Philadelphia Housing Authority-operated apartment; by the time it was extinguished, nine children and three adults had perished. Part of a tight-knit family crowded into a too-small apartment, they ranged in age from 2 to 39.

Huynh said Vanessa and Estelle McDonald were close collaborators over the last year as the tribute took shape. On Monday, a 7-year-old child who survived the fire visited the exhibit for the first time during a private viewing, he said. The boy stood transfixed by a video of his mother dancing, Huynh said.

» READ MORE: A year after a deadly Fairmount fire, the victims’ graves finally have a headstone

Displayed in six glass cases outside the mayor’s offices in City Hall, the tribute opens with an original painting by the artist Taqiy Muhammad titled 869 Angels; the number refers to the address of the Fairmount rowhouse on North 23rd Street where the family lived. The exhibit will run through March.

Other details serve as reminders of the vastness of the loss, for the family and for the city.

Quinsha Vanessa White, 18, was “an outspoken fire cracker” who dreamed of becoming a nurse, according to an obituary written by the family. Sixteen-year-old Quintien Tate-McDonald’s worn red baseball cap sits in front of a photo of him in a blue graduation robe. A copy of a Facebook post by Rosalee McDonald announces the happy birth of J’Kwan Tyrone Robinson, who died at age 5.

Photos of the nine children are displayed on top of a kaleidoscope of colorful butterflies, orange and yellow and blue. They were particularly important to the surviving family members, Huynh said, as symbols of transformation.