EDWARDSVILLE, Pa. — On Monday morning, big piece of heavy equipment crunched through the former St. Hedwig's Church on Zerby Avenue in Edwardsville, the first step in taking down the fire-ravaged building.
A huge fire reduced the building to rubble early Sunday morning.
The church closed in 2007. The Diocese of Scranton sold it to Catholic Social Services. It sold the building to what the diocese calls "another entity."
As the rubble smoldered and small flames remained, former parishioners dropped by to remember.
"Oh, beautiful on the inside and the outside. The craftsmanship and detail were one of a kind." Marc Yerashunas recalled.
Yerashunas lives in Falls now. He grew up in Edwardsville. Yerashunas said St. Hedwig's held this community together.
Billy Daley still lives in the neighborhood.
"Sad because it's another part of the community, our history, that's kind of lost, and that's sad."
But part of St. Hedwig's will not be lost. While it was clear from the beginning the building could not be saved, people involved in the demolition and in the borough of Edwardsville took Take steps to make sure at least part of St. Hedwig's lives on.
On the Meyers Street side of the building, the statue of the Virgin Mary, loosened from her pedestal, was lifted by a tow truck, and carefully placed into the front bucket of a backhoe.
A member of the Edwardsville Public Works Department said a lot of people in this neighborhood pleaded to save the statue, that it not be damaged during demolition. After all, this is a neighborhood that's already lost so much.
"You hate to see a church — I know it was abandoned — but you hate to see a church go up because that's our faith. As a Catholic, that's your faith," said former parishioner Kathy Donlin.
From here, the statue of Mary goes into storage, a safe place, according to Edwardsville DPW. After that, it's up to the owner of the property.
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