“Total devastation. It’s a shame.”Nothing but rubble and ashes are all that remain of a historic church in Spencer, Massachusetts, after a fire destroyed the 160-year-old building. On Saturday, church members, neighbors and church employees came by to see what was left.”It’s been like a second home,” Harold Carlson, church moderator, said.Carlson has been a part of the church since the 1960s. He was baptized there as a child and got married there as an adult.“It was a stable place in the community,” Carlson said.”I got maybe to the second floor, and they were like, ‘Get out! Get out! Get out! There’s smoke,’” Elizabeth Goyette, an administrative assistant at the church, said.Goyette was called to the church Friday afternoon to check out why the fire alarm had gone off. Investigators believe the church steeple was struck by lightning during Friday’s thunderstorms. Now, she can’t believe there’s nothing left of the Civil War-era building.“To think about how they raised their families here and how they baptized their babies here and generations got married and so many gorgeous layers of brides that walked down the amazing aisles of the sanctuary,” Goyette said.Susan Ceccacci is an architectural historian and came to witness the devastation. She says the church has been here on Main Street for 160 years as a place of worship. The church was destroyed by fire back in 1862 and then rebuilt one year later.“It’s a loss to the people of Spencer. It’s a loss to architectural beauty,” Ceccacci said.Watch the video above to see the flames devastatingly destroy the church.
“Total devastation. It’s a shame.”
Nothing but rubble and ashes are all that remain of a historic church in Spencer, Massachusetts, after a fire destroyed the 160-year-old building.
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On Saturday, church members, neighbors and church employees came by to see what was left.
“It’s been like a second home,” Harold Carlson, church moderator, said.
Carlson has been a part of the church since the 1960s. He was baptized there as a child and got married there as an adult.
“It was a stable place in the community,” Carlson said.
“I got maybe to the second floor, and they were like, ‘Get out! Get out! Get out! There’s smoke,’” Elizabeth Goyette, an administrative assistant at the church, said.
Goyette was called to the church Friday afternoon to check out why the fire alarm had gone off.
Investigators believe the church steeple was struck by lightning during Friday’s thunderstorms.
Now, she can’t believe there’s nothing left of the Civil War-era building.
“To think about how they raised their families here and how they baptized their babies here and generations got married and so many gorgeous layers of brides that walked down the amazing aisles of the sanctuary,” Goyette said.
Susan Ceccacci is an architectural historian and came to witness the devastation.
She says the church has been here on Main Street for 160 years as a place of worship.
The church was destroyed by fire back in 1862 and then rebuilt one year later.
“It’s a loss to the people of Spencer. It’s a loss to architectural beauty,” Ceccacci said.
Watch the video above to see the flames devastatingly destroy the church.
