As a destructive storm howled through Philadelphia Tuesday night, John Connors’ phone started to buzz with text messages from his neighbors.

There were condos under construction next to the small, squat building Connors owns on East Allen Street in Fishtown, and in the high winds and heavy rain, the construction project had collapsed onto Connors’ property.

As water poured through the roof, Connors rushed to the scene. The damage to the building, though, was the least of his concerns. He needed to get to the collection inside.

Connors directs the Penn Treaty Museum, a foundation centered on the 1682 treaty between William Penn and the Lenni Lenape, enacted on the banks of the Delaware in what is now Fishtown.

Honoring the treaty and educating others about it has been Connors’ passion for decades. Many of the items in its collection are his, amassed over the years and now resting largely out of the public eye in the Allen Street property — the museum does not have a permanent exhibition space.

Until Tuesday night, the unassuming building stored everything from archival photos to paintings commemorating the treaty and artifacts from Penn’s era. There are silver spoons and shards of pottery and a bowl carved from the elm tree under which Penn and the Lenape chief Tamanend exchanged tokens of friendship.

“The only reason this [museum] is here is because of peace and friendship,” Connors said.

When two floors of the condominium complex crashed through the museum’s roof, Connors and other museum board members could only hope the damage to their collection was minimal.

By Wednesday morning, they had removed about 200 artifacts that had been exposed to moisture but not much else. As it turned out, the roof had collapsed in a largely empty room next to the one that housed the collection.

“It’s the good karma of the Penn treaty — the karma of the elm tree,” Connors said.

At the construction site, two workers were injured when the roof collapsed, said a representative of the construction company, New Life Construction. Both have been released from the hospital.

The representative, who declined to give his name, said the site’s owners were investigating the cause of the collapse and cooperating with the Department of Licenses and Inspections.

Connors said the museum is trying to focus on what’s ahead — namely, a project to install better lighting around a sculpture by American Indian artist Bob Haozous that stands near the entrance to the park across the street.

And for now, the collection — his pride and passion — is being stored with an archaeological society in Burlington City.

Connors was carting artifacts through the society’s parking lot on Wednesday afternoon when he drew the attention of a man clearing fallen tree branches from the yard next door.

“Hey,” the man said, and pointed at a print Connors was carrying. “William Penn!”

The man explained that he was a historical reenactor who specialized in portraying Penn. He listened to Connors’ story, and then told him he wanted to participate in the museum’s next event. Connors could only laugh. What were the odds?

He chalked it up, as always, to the good karma of the tree. awhelan@philly.com   215-854-2961 @aubreyjwhelan