Montgomery Historic Preservation Committee Tables Plans to Demolish Historic Church
The oldest church building in Montgomery may be demolished and rebuilt soon, but some people are fighting to keep the landmark in tact.
The historic First Presbyterian Church was built in the 1800’s.
Today the building is owned by First Baptist Church, and officials with the church say it is costing too much to maintain.
“We realize that in the last few years we’ve spent over two million dollars in maintenance. We just can’t keep doing that,” says
Dr. Jay Wolf, Pastor of First Baptist Church.
The church has plants to demolish the aging structure and rebuild a modern building in its place that will better server the community.
Wolf says the church has already raised more than three million dollars for the project.
Earlier this week the Montgomery Historic Preservation Commitee tabled the churches plans for 6 months pending a full review.
The committee says their structural assesment of the building reveals it has some deterioration, but is repairable.
Pastor Wolf says otherwise. He says the church’s independent assesment deemed the structure costly to repair, and they recommended ” we should just demolish it.”
Christy Anderson, coordinator for the Montgomery Historic Preservation Committee says she and Wolf will have discussion over the next few months ” that will be a win win for the church and community.”
Wolf has expressed that the church will sell the building for the right price.
