GUEST CITY STUPIDITY: NEW BERN

Property: McLellan's Five and Dime
Built: 1927
Torn Down: June 2006 for "green space"

My girlfriend and I were at the coast this weekend and visited a town I usually enjoy, New Bern. Walking down Middle street, I noticed an empty corner of brown grass where I was sure a building had been. Sure enough, after asking around a bit, we found out that the First Baptist Church next door had torn down the 1927 commercial building for the usual reasons - they bought the property to expand, they found some inspectors to tell them that it was 'unstable', and tore down the building over the protests of the local Historic Society. I managed to find a copy of a brochure with picture of a watercolor with the before picture and take an after with the camera phone. Best I could do under the circumstances...

Why do churches hate history? A great downtown street in a downtown that has great spaces and architecture is irretrievably damaged.

Before

After