For well over 100 years the First Baptist Church has glowered over Main Street. Its broad shoulders have successfully separated the Masonic Temple and the hardware store. Even though we are told it was a much prettier building in the past when it was covered with ivy, I’m skeptical. Particularly compared to the congregational church across the street, which positively soars, it’s a hulk.

Besides ministering to the needs of a dwindling congregation, the Baptist Church is best known around town for the work it does each winter inviting in the homeless and the near-homeless to stay warm. They also have an impressive Estey organ and regularly host concerts.

A few years ago, they sold their Tiffany stained-glass windows to help defray expenses, and this week the membership of the church voted to sell the entire building, because the endowment is nearly gone. An anonymous donor has offered to buy the building for $200,000, which is about one quarter of its value on the city tax rolls and about half the value given by a recent real estate appraisal. On a per-brick basis, a couple hundred thousand sounds like a bargain, but I can’t imagine how much money would need to be sunk into maintenance, renovation, and probably things like asbestos cleanup in order to make the building suitable for any other use. One rumor is that the buyer will simply turn around and give the building back to the congregation, presumably taking some sort of tax benefit on the transaction.