Demolition This Week for St. Mary’s Church in Melrose – KNSI Radio

Jennifer Lewerenz | May 19, 2020 AT 6:41 am

(KNSI) - A central Minnesota church, heavily damaged by fire, will be demolished this week.

The 122-year-old St. Mary's Church in Melrose will be no more as crews are getting set to tear the building down.

March 11th, 2016, crews responded to a fire at the church, which had started sometime before 5:00 that afternoon. Crews from three departments battled the blaze, which caused more than a million dollars' damage.

In 2018, a teenager confessed to setting the fire, after a 22 month-long investigation by the Stearns County Sheriff's Department, Melrose Police Department, The State Fire Marshal's Office and the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms. The boy, who was 13 at the time of the fire, was charged with first-degree arson.

The fire caused extensive damage to the altar and sacristy area. The wood altar, which was made in Germany, and installed prior to the church's dedication in 1899, was completely destroyed.

Along with fire damage, there were several feet of standing water in the basement.

In 2019, parishioners who were trying to stop the church's demolition lost an appeal. St. Mary's is on the National Register of Historic Places, and the group argued that the church couldn't be torn down under the Minnesota Environmental Rights Act. A judge from the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the St. Cloud Diocese, saying that it was an internal matter.

The church was a fixture in Melrose with its 130-foot towers, but those towers will come down as soon as Tuesday. A new $10 million dollar church is under construction nearby. The new building will use stained glass and the bells from the old building.

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Demolition This Week for St. Mary's Church in Melrose - KNSI Radio