WOODSTOCK — The Seventh-day Adventist Church has begun construction on its new church and school building.
The building will replace three structures that house the church, the Forestdale Christian School and the a food pantry, which church officials say is a vital community service that helps feed hundreds of families. The church building was moved to the site from Sumner in the 1950s.
Church member Scott Christiansen said the single-story building will be 10,500 square feet. It is expected to cost just under $600,000 and will be built on the church property on Perkins Valley Road.
“The church we are in now, though beloved (many in the congregation were married there) has an increasing number of structural problems and concerns,” Christiansen said.
The congregation’s first church on Route 26 burned to the ground in 1917 and was rebuilt a year later on the present site, according to a 1967 history of the church published in the Sun Journal. By 1946, the congregation had outgrown the small church and contacted the Baptist Church at Sumner Corner, which was removing its 1880s church.
The Baptist church was taken down and rebuilt in Woodstock in the early 1950s. Pews were secured from the Universalist Church on Paris Hill in Paris that was being taken down. The current church was dedicated in 1951 and the smaller church was made into the Forestdale Christian School.
The school, which houses a kindergarten through grade eight school with two teachers and 20 students, was expanded over the years, according to Christiansen.
“It consolidates a little,” building committee member Lloyd Poland said of the project. “We’ll have more usable space.”
Concerning what will happen to the old church and school building, he said, “We will explore all options.”
The church has a bell tower and bell, pews, wainscoting in the sanctuary and other original features.
Local contractors have been hired for portions of the construction, which is being initiated with the money the church has raised and a loan from the Northern New England Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.
Completion of the building will depend on the speed with which the congregation is able to raise about $250,000 to complete the interior, but the building will be enclosed and weathertight by winter, Christiansen said.
ldixon@sunjournal.com
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- The Seventh-day Adventist Church school on Perkins Valley Road in Woodstock was originally a small church that was enlarged over time. It has been used as a school for 75 years.
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- The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Woodstock was formerly a Baptist Church in Sumner. It was torn down and rebuilt in Woodstock on the Perkins Valley Road.
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