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August 2001


January 2002. The gabled wall at right no longer stands.

First Methodist Church
A second abandoned church stood at Summit and 13th Streets; it suffered a massive fire some time before 2001. The entire roof caved in, leaving almost nothing but the stone walls. When I drove past a second time in January 2002, it appeared that a few of the stones were being stacked for salvage.

Built as First Methodist Church in 1887, with a 1904 addition, the building was home to the Mount Pisgah Baptist Church from 1976 till a roof collapse in 1995. It was finally demolished in the summer of 2002.


August 2001.

This vintage postcard view shows the church when it was new. How could this community ever afford to maintain such a grandiose, overwrought building?

Continue on to see the fate of the salvaged towers....

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