BY NICHOLAS BROWN

 

Just after sunset on the frozen morning of Sunday, Feb. 25, the historic former Epsom Baptist Church building took a quarter-mile trip down state Route 4 to its new home next to the town’s new library and old town hall.

Just after sunset on the frozen morning of Sunday, Feb. 25, the historic former Epsom Baptist Church building took a quarter-mile trip down state Route 4 to its new home next to the town’s new library and old town hall.

The building, which was dedicated on Christmas Day, 1861, was just four days shy of being demolished to make room for a Cumberland Farms gas station and convenience store.

The move marked the end of a nearly two-year effort from a group of volunteers calling themselves the Friends of the Historic Epsom Meetinghouse Committee to raise the estimated $80,000 to move the building, so as not to rely on property taxes.

On Feb. 13, the townspeople voted 353-284 to accept the building as a gift from Cumberland Farms.

While critics of the move have said it could cost the town dearly in long-term maintenance, supporters of preserving the building have heralded the project as a chance to create a community center for the small town, which is now largely defined by a traffic circle that connects two state highways.