It was a bit of a sad day here in town. Times have changed and the Catholic church here in town no longer needed nor wanted to afford the upkeep of the rectory. From what I was told, the rectory was built in the 50’s back when the church had it’s own priest. Things here changed. The Catholic churches in the neighboring towns have consolidated to have one large joint parish with several churches. There is one priest and he severs the churches rotating mass from church to church.
When we first moved into the area, they had closed the town Catholic school and eventually that was taken down. Now it was time for the rectory to go. With no priest living there, it was too expensive to keep up and needed too many renovations.
Previous to this they had a rummage sale selling the contents of the house….now, it was time for the rectory to go. The fire department held a training in it a couple weeks and Thursday night last week, it was time for the building to go. The firemen burned it.
There were quite a few people there to watch it go including us. We took Carver so he could see Daddy and Papa being firemen.
Papa even took some time to pick on Carver….
Here’s our guys….
The firemen were on scene so that they could keep the fire from spreading to the church or the garage that is in the right of the picture below.
They had a excavator there to push in the walls once the center burned. Carver got to sit in it and loved it.
Here’s the excavator at work.
It got really in close to the fire. The firemen kept hosing the excavator down so it didn’t catch on fire.
It didn’t take long and the rectory was gone. It was a sad day…the end of an age when our community was larger….more people practiced their faith…more people went to be a priest.
They are adding more parking where the rectory was. They need it for days when this church hosts mass for the area churches.
I know towns all over are experiencing this. It something we all are sad to see happen.
I am particularly sad about folks who dont attend church, including my sons. My husband and I treasure our sundays at church, both spiritually and socially.
You are right it is a sad day. That looked like it was a great house, once upon a time. I’m glad they are still able to have mass in the church. When our girls were younger we would visit other churches (we are catholic) because the decorations in each church were so beautiful. I’m with you it is sad that people don’t attend church on a regular basis, Sunday isn’t complete without it.
When I go home to the small Iowa town where I grew up, I am always sad to see how it has changed since I grew up there in the 50’s and 60’s. What used to be two blocks of bustling stores is now only a handful of stores. The Methodist church that was a second home to me has very few who attend on Sundays. There is the same arrangement there with one minister to serve several churches in the area. Both sets of my great grandparents, my grandparents and of course my parents raised their families there. In different life circumstances I would have been happy to live there the rest of my life but that didn’t happen. So sad to see this happen to small towns.
So sad. Our parish still has it’s grade school (1-8). The high school closed several years ago. Theystudents have to go for 9-12 to a neighboring high school about 15 miles away, The church I attend is an outreach of the main church about 7 miles away. There has been some talk about closing our church. The priest serving it serves both churches. There is a possibility of him being assigned to another parish. We hope not…he’s fantastic and so is our local parish community.
It’s happening everywhere – my old country church is now a “Conservancy” – the new church is a combo of 3 other Lutheran churches. The adjoining town’s Lutheran Church has been purchased by some other religion. 8-((( My old Lutheran grade school is now closed, can’t get enough kids enrolled. Yes, times change. I can’t imagine BURNING the old building – more SAD! That must have been heartbreaking.
I enjoy the stories about your small town life and it is sad to see some of the changes. The pictures of Carver are sweet.