Million-dollar church sold for a dollar

Two years after hitting the real estate market with a $949,000 price tag, the Lachute United Church and a portion of its property has been sold to the city for just one dollar.

According to Rev. Georgia Copland, the dwindling group of parishioners could no longer afford to maintain the historic red brick building and keep up its costly repairs.

"We will start now to seriously look at what and how we will be a church in Lachute," said Rev. Copland. "The idea that we can still be a church without a building is an interesting one. We can't all continue to see a church as a building, because buildings are just too expensive to maintain."

The City of Lachute has considered buying the United Church and transforming it into a public library since last May, when council announced it would spend $30,000 on a feasibility study to investigate the bones of the building.

The study was intended to highlight infrastructure issues related to heating, lighting and plumbing, as well as concerns about whether the building could support the considerable weight of tens of thousands of books.

The cost of moving the library from its current location and transforming it will be a lengthy and costly expense - one paid for by the city in conjuncture with provincial grants. Neighbouring Brownsburg-Chatham has also been approached to see if it would be interested in sharing the new library, but according to Lachute Mayor Daniel Mayer, staff has yet to receive a response.

When Lachute announced in 2009 that it would be investing in a $2.5-million renovation to its library - to double the size of its existing facilities - the city received a $1.29-million grant from the Quebec Ministry of Culture. This grant has been defrayed and is expected to be applied to these church renovations.

Nevertheless, the current sale of the church and its properties is a complex one. It involves the division of the property so that a portion of the land can be sold to the Lachute Residence for a projected cost of $250,000.

The sale of this adjacent piece of property is still in the discussion stage but, should it proceed, it will allow the Lachute Residence to enlarge individual accommodations and its kitchen as well as build shared living rooms for its senior tenants.

For its dollar, the city received the church on lot 3,630,173, situated at 397 rue Principale, as well as part of lot 3,038,577. This property includes the church itself and parking as well as a house located behind the church, which is slated for demolition.

DFS Inc. Architecture and Design has been hired for $19,000 to prepare designs for the new building and, as part of its sale agreement, the city has also agreed to pay $10,000 to heat the church this winter.

According to Copland, the church relics will be removed from the building, but no decision has yet been made concerning items like the Casavant organ and pews. The stained-glass windows were included in the sale of the church, but it is uncertain whether they will remain in the new library.

Built in 1899 to serve the rising Presbyterian population, the original church served a booming congregation that rallied together after a fire levelled the building on February 16, 1939.

According to church records, firefighters struggled in minus-20 degree weather to save religious relics and the Casavant organ, both of which remain in the new church, which was rebuilt and opened within months of the devastating fire.