St. Philip's
Week of August 23-27, 2004

Day 1

These photos are Monday, August 23, 2004.  What a day of mixed emotions.  Many residents of Franklin and the surrounding communities stopped by to be a part of this moment in history.   There are many, many photos of this day.  I felt as though I were documenting history so I have chosen to place all the photos on this page.  If you just want a general idea of how the day progressed just skip through and look at a few.  For those of us deeply touched by this moment in history we'll want to view each and every shot to watch as the church is disassembled.  

 There are many interesting things to note.   You can see in the first pictures the areas on the face of the church where the angels and Sacred Heart had been.  Behind those are the old wooden church.  As the demolition began the bricks starting falling away and at a couple of points you could see the old wooden church still standing.  It was a breathtaking moment.   Many of us only remember the brick church.  We can only imagine what a task it was for our ancestors to move that church to this location (1945).  

 The entire structure was torn down on this date (August 23, 2004) with the exception of the bell tower.   It stood tall throughout the entire process and never wavered.  As they tried to bring it down late in the day it was apparent it was not going to be an easy task.  

At the bottom of this page is a link to the rest of the demolition process.

Click on photos for larger image then use your "back" button to return to this page.