The bad news is preservationists’ efforts to keep a historic stone church in the Rock Hill, Mo., area were stymied. The good news is that the church will be reassembled at winery in Warren County, Mo.
According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, preservationists wanted to move the 1845 Rock Hill Presbyterian Church and adjacent Fairfax House from their location on Manchester Road (aka Route 66) to nearby Rock Hill Park. The land had been purchased about two years ago to make way for a U-Gas station, car wash, and convenience store.
However, the church was dismantled and will be reassembled at Cedar Lake Cellars winery. According to winery owner Carl Bolm, the cost of putting the church back together will be between $200,000 to $400,000. Brinkman Contractors will pay some costs of the move.
The St. Louis Patina blog posted several recent photos of the church being taken down.
The Fairfax Home will be moved also, but to a spot on the current property at McKnight Road.
I can sympathize with preservationists’ dissatisfaction with the church’s removal:
Esley Hamilton, St. Louis County preservation historian, said that taking the church apart and reassembling it at the winery would lose the church’s historical integrity and could result in some stones falling apart.
“If it’s done in that way, it’s a replica, not the original building, and it’s totally out of its context as the central focus of the Rock Hill community,” Hamilton said.
However, this scenario seems much preferable to the church and home being razed and the rubble dumped in a landfill. Although the church’s historic status will vanish with the move, at least it survives in some semblance and will continue to be used.
(Hat tip: Norma Bolin)