Laconia's oldest church to be sold

The oldest church building in the city may soon be for sale. The membership of the Evangelical Baptist Church voted last evening to move from their historic structure on Veteran's Square and construct a new facility elsewhere.

In advance of the vote, Assistant Pastor Bob Bryant explained church leaders were searching, at this point, only for general direction. "We have no other site in mind," he said.

The question put to the 100 or so members of the church was simple: "Should the church relocate and construct a new building?"

Church Administrative Assistant Betty Trask explained the vote came after a year of intensive study by a needs assessment team the explored both the feasibility of restoring the 169-year-old structure and moving to another location. In 2004 the church moved it business offices to the Masonic Temple building located around the corner on Main Street in order to better accommodate Sunday School classes and AWANA, a popular Friday night program for young people.

Bryant noted the church now sits on a "postage stamp" of a lot with no place to expand. "Churches now are expected to have expansive lobbies and places to gather," he said. "We need a building that is more set up for our ministry objectives."

The decision was not an easy one to make, said Trask, especially for many older members of the congregation who have grown up in the church, been baptized there and attended Sunday School and Daily Vacation Bible School in the building. "Several later answered God's call to far off lands as missionaries and pastors were commissioned here," she said.

Listed on the National Historic Register since 1985, the church was constructed in 1836 at the intersection of Church St. and Main Street. Its exact location was the land occupied by the large flagpole on the grounds of the Laconia Public Library. The church faced west.

Originally known as the North Church (Congregational), the building was later acquired by the Peoples Church — formed in 1892 after a split with the Methodist Church — and moved across the street to its present location in 1903, the same year the Gayle Memorial library building was dedicated.

The Peoples Church — which in 1905 became the First Christian Church of Laconia — bought the building for $1,000 (including the organ) and spend another $1,000 to move it to a lot it paid $1,780 for. Transported on rollers, the church was moved with everything intact, including the 170-ft.-tall steeple.

The steeple was destroyed by the infamous hurricane of 1938 — it reportedly fell across Veteran's Square, landing on the roof of the train station — and was replaced by the current 115-ft.-tall steeple.

In 1954, the church name was changed to the Evangelical Baptist Church of Laconia. Three years later an addition was constructed at the back of the building that allowed for two more Sunday School rooms, a nursery, a new furnace room and two rest rooms.

The pipe organ was replaced in 1953 by an electric one donated by the Covey family in memory of their father, Lucius Covey, and uncle, Charles D. Rice. The church vestry was later affectionately renamed Rice Chapel in honor of Mrs. Charles Rice — "Aunt" Eva Rice — who joined the church in 1911, when she was 19 years old, and remained a member until her death, at age 102, in 1995.

The Evangelical Baptist Church's senior pastor is Dr. Frank L. Accardy, former executive director of the The New England Fellowship of Evangelicals in Rumney. Assistant Pastor Bryant retired a year ago as a lieutenant with the NH Fish and Game Department, where he had worked for 25 years.