ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, July 19, 1996 TAG: 9607190050
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAMES TOLLIVER JR. STAFF WRITER
OLD FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH may have been ravaged by fire, but its brick walls refused to yield to the demolition crew Thursday. But some say there was money available to restore the structure.
It won't come down. Gainsboro's historic old First Baptist Church - now in its third day of razing - has yet to be demolished.
Workers from Amos Inc., the demolition company razing the church, arrived at Old First about 7 a.m. Thursday. They put a cable around the church in hopes of pulling it down. Only half of the structure fell.
Workers tried to bring down the rest of the nearly 100-year-old building but it did not fall. At 2:30 p.m., a crane was called in to finish the job.
The crane pushed on the church until the tower fell. As the crane attempted to knock down another section, parts of the structure wobbled and began to bend, but it did not fall.
The crane operator took a water break, then gave it another try. Finally the tower of the church was completely removed. Three church walls still remain.
"That's a whole lot of brick," said Lanvan Reid, a church member who has also studied bricklaying. "It's about six courses [wide] of bricks, you don't see that anymore."
After 15 months of deliberation, a unanimous decision to demolish the structure - damaged by fire last year - came during the church's last congregational meeting in June.
The plans for the land have not been disclosed. The Rev. Kenneth Wright has declined to speak on the church's plans for it.
The razing of the Gothic-style national landmark, which will continue today, has brought concern to people around the valley.
"I am very upset by the decision," said John Kern, regional director of the State Department of Historic Resources. "This structure was not only significant to Gainsboro, but architecturally too."
"I'm sick about it," said Polly Ayers Bixler, president of The Acting Company that had been using the building to stage plays. "My feeling is there was financial support to keep the structure."
The congregation has been in its current location at 310 N. Jefferson St. since 1982. The original church was scheduled for demolition in 1989, but opposition helped turn the church into an arts center.
Two years later Roanoke City Council granted the arts center, known as The Arts Place at the Old First, $48,500 in federal funds to help pay for the conversion. Council specified that the funds could not be used for religious purposes.
The money was to be used for such repairs as restoring the windows, repairing the roof, and stabilizing the steeple and belfry.
Kern said that opponents to the razing were more interested in converting it into a theater than trying to rebuild the church.
"When you go to Europe there are lots of ruins which have been preserved," Kern said. "What a compelling and symbolic story this could have been for Gainsboro if this structure had survived."
After the fire, $37,825 in federal money was still available. According to Charlie Harlow, grants monitor in the office of grants compliance, no such request were made.
The Acting Company performing arts group is now defunct. The League of Roanoke Artists, which also used Old First, is performing at locations around the city.
Evelyn Bethel, president of Historic Gainsboro Preservation District, said that private funds also were available.
"I've received many calls from various people wanting to contribute to the rebuilding of the church," Bethel said. "It was a national landmark. I know some type of support was there to restore it."
The cornerstone, marble from the baptismal, the bulletin from the front of the church, and the bell were salvaged before the demolition.
"Yes, it pains me to see the church go," Reid said. "but it's just bricks and mortar. It's the people that make the church."
While plans for the land Old First once occupied have not been revealed, selling the land has not been an option.
"The city won't get this land," said John Powell, vice chairman of the trustee board. "I don't know what will be put there, but whatever it is, it will be First Baptist's."
Old First was the state's largest black church, west of Richmond. Many of Roanoke's prominent black residents attended Old First.
"The land is owned by the church but the church belonged to the valley," Bethel said.
LENGTH: Medium: 90 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ROGER HART/Staff. 1. A crane knocks over the steeple ofby CNBthe First Baptist Church on North Jefferson Street in Roanoke as
part of the church's demolition Thursday. 2. (From left) Louise
Patsell, Janie Willett and Kay Kennerly, all lifetime Roanoke
residents, watch as a crane demolishes the First Baptist Church's
steeple. color.