THUNDER BAY – Come Tuesday, the Trinity United Church’s century old manse will no longer be standing.
The adjoining residence to the church on Algoma Street was scheduled to be torn down Monday but mechanical issues postponed the demolition by one day.
Even though the building is going down many historical items inside have been saved, said Jean Murray, chair of the church’s property committee.
“We’ve saved the stained glass windows that were inside. Some of the congregation bought chandeliers and some of the other things that were in there,” Murray said.
“We wanted to keep something from the manse as part of the church so that’s why we kept four of the windows to hang in the church and we’ll have a plaque underneath it saying where they came from.”
Other pieces from inside the manse will be sold by Sleeping Giant Antiques to help the church raise money to maintain the primary building.
A minister has not resided in the manse for more than 20 years, leaving the building without a use.
Time has caught up with the structure, with Murray saying estimates pegged the cost to bring it back up to building code at upwards of $200,000.
The decision to tear it down was not an easy one, but the financial situation made it necessary.
“We’re sad it’s coming down. We would have liked to have kept it but we didn’t have a use for it and it was going to cost us so much money to be able to do something with it,” Murray said.
Part of the structure will be kept and already has another use in mind.
The stone used in the exterior of the basement is the same as the church building, which lends itself well to future renovation projects.
“We are saving as much of that stone as we can,” she said. “We’re going to use it on the elevator so it looks the same and keeps the historic value of the church.”
