VIDEO: Demolition of the Former Methodist Church

An excavator made quick work of knocking down the former Methodist church at the corner of Burrill Street and Rock Avenue on Tuesday.

By the end of the day the lot was a rubble pile.

Town Historian Louis Gallo said the church was originally home to a Baptist congregation.

Later the 100 Burrill St. building was a Methodist church, he said.

He remembers an enormous light-blue cross being attached to the front of the building that faced Burrill Street. That was in the 1960s.

A resident who stopped by the site during demolition on Tuesday said her husband's father was an organist at the Methodist church.

Maria Lincoln said her husband, Loring Lincoln, remembers going to the Burrill Street church at night while his father practiced.

She said the church held a reunion of sorts back in the late 1980s.

It was a heart-wrenching reunion because people stepped forward saying they had been baptised, been married in the church, Maria Lincoln said.

According to the local history book , the church held its last service in 1988.

The building was erected in 1873 by local Baptists, the book states.

Later, in 1923, the Methodist church bought the building for $13,500 and made numerous improvements, according to the book.