DEMOLITION and construction

Photos Below and on Gallery Pages

Gallery Two

Gallery Three

Gallery Four

The Thomas Building  was built in 1949 as the "Education Building", but officially named the "Thomas Building" in honor of Rev. G. Ernest Thomas who was Senior Minister from 1942-1950.
The "Graystone" church that originally stood in the location of our present day church was experiencing the pains of a growing congregation that was running out of room for activities, especially for our youth.
Membership had increased five times its size in 1912 when the church was built.

Plans for a new Educational building were drafted in 1948, groundbreaking took place in 1949, and the building was consecrate on new Years Day, 1950. The granite wall on the right hand side was constructed to match the rest of the Graystone church, which was also granite.  It is not a remnant of the 1912 church.

Elizabeth Eggleston came to our church as Director of Religious Education in 1953 
Our Sunday School population had increased dramatically due to the post-war "Baby-Boom".  Eggleston revamped the Sunday School curriculum at our church as well as throughout the Methodist Church as a whole. The need for increased classrooms and facilities to serve our young people brought about the construction of another new building - the "Children's Building", which was later renamed in honor of Elizabeth Eggleston. 
This building stands to the left of the Thomas Building and was actually under construction at the time of "The Fire of 55'".  The fire destroyed the Graystone church, however, both the Thomas and Eggleston buildings survived. 

It was recently discovered the rear walls of both date to 1912 since both buildings were built onto the Graystone Church rather than having their own walls.  Neither are structurally sound due to the fact they were exposed to the fire and do not have their own means of support.

The following slides are before and after construction, the slides on Gallery One are of fire damage and reconstruction of the new church.  Photos of demolition will follow.