EPSOM – The Civil War-era church that’s helped visually define Epsom for generations has been spared, at least temporarily, from the crueler side of development.

On Tuesday, Feb. 13, at the second leg of a special Town Meeting, residents voted 353-284 in favor of moving the historic Epsom meeting house, commonly known as the old Epsom Bible Church building, a quarter of a mile east on Route 4.

On the early morning of Sunday, Feb. 25, traffic will be blocked off, utility lines will come down, and the building will be taken to a prepared spot next to the new town library and behind the old Town Hall.

“I’m just thankful people realized the value of this piece of history,” said *** Frambach, chairman of the Friends of the Historic Epsom Meetinghouse Committee. Frambach, who was shedding tears of joy after the vote was announced inside Epsom Central School, led the committee in an 18-month fundraising effort that will allow the 1861 building to be moved without taxation.

“That church is an icon in this town,” said Frambach, who was married inside the church. “It’s not my church, it’s 140 years old.”

Cumberland Farms, which has owned the building’s Route 4 and Blackhall Road site since late last year, is building a sixpump gas station and convenience store, and gave the town a March 1 deadline to have the building moved before it was to be razed.

The company offered the building to the town and donated $10,000 toward its move. Lifelong Epsom resident and State Rep. Charles Yeaton was one of about 20 people nervously awaiting the vote tally. He said he’s not a member of the Epsom Bible Church, but holds fond childhood memories of events within the church building.

“This is part of our heritage,” he said. “To have it destroyed would have been a disaster.”

Critics of the move have said it commits the town to years of costly maintenance and operational costs. Some residents have said they don’t support the move because no firm plans for what to do with the building once it’s moved.

Proponents of the move largely favor using the sanctuary as a meeting space to front new town offices at its new site. An independent committee studying Epsom’s current and projected 20-year town office needs determined the town – which currently pays more than $20,000 in office rent annually – needs new accommodations.

The committee showed designs both for all new offices on the new site, along with plans that attached new offices to the church building to more than 100 residents a month ago. They estimated the “all new” plan to cost about $875,000 now, and another $175,000 for expansion in 10 years. A plan that incorporates the church building would add about $75,000 to the total, but committee members warned the building’s existing condition could significantly move that number in either direction.

The building has gotten attention from preservationists locally, statewide and throughout the nation, and several state area preservationists have said finding a new use for the building would be a project that could garner healthy doses of grant money.

Two warrant articles on next month’s Town Meeting ballot ask for $50,000 related to town hall space. One asks for engineering fees, and the other asks to spark a capital reserve fund to buy, build or renovate for new offices.

For now, the focus is strictly on the building’s move. “I’ve got to send a check to the utilities tomorrow,” said Frambach.