HomeMy WebLinkAboutHistoric building moves to new addressA new start
Eagle photo/Stuart Villanue
Tim Flores of Morgan and Morgan House Movers uses his body weight to moving Friday. The historic church was transported from College Station
operate a jack while preparing the old Rock Prairie Baptist Church for Millican. To read more about the move, see Page A9.
iviovmg (a church) on down the road
The old
Rock
Prairie
Baptist
Church
makes Its
way down
the Texas
6 frontage
road to the
Rock
Prairie
Road
overpass
Fridaiy.
Eagle photo
Stuart
Villanueva
i
Historic building takes a short
By JOHN BRADEN
Eagle Sta})' Writer
n old College Station class-
room and church building
with more than 100 years of
history behind it was relocated to a
new home Friday.
As of about 3 p.m., after about
$6,000 and a 2~hour trek, the old
building was peacefully resting on
the property of Lynn and Terrie
Kunz, about 12 miles from where it
had spent the previous 117 years.
The one-room building was con-
s~cted in 1891, near the present lay
intersection of Rock Prairie Road
and Texas 6, to serve as the Rock
Prairie grammar school, according
to the Brazos County Historical Com-
mission.
The building, which is about 31
feet wide and 18 feet high, became a
site of worship as the Rock Prairie
Missionary Baptist Church in 1900.
School classes were discontinued in
journey to a new address in Millican
1919 after the school was consolidat-
ed with the nearby Shiloh school, but
the building continued to act as a
Baptist church for many years.
Brazos County~HistoricalmCommithe
sion, said, "We are pleased that
Weingarten Investors, the developer
of the property, has put forth the
effort to fmd someone willing to
move the old church off and save it
from demolition."
The Kunzes, who were contacted
about the church less than a week
ago, say they are very happy and
excited that they may once again be
able to put the building to good use.
"We feel very blessed that we were
contacted about the church," Terrie
Kunz said. "We are going to turn it
into aone-bedroom, one-bathroom
house for family members to live in."
The Kunzes, who own a construc-
tion business in Navasota, plan to
Move
From A9
put a new roof on the build-
ing, remove the old vinyl sid-
ing, salvage what they can
and repaint the walls in an
effort to return the building to
its past beauty.
In addition to moving the
small building, they salvaged
much of the electrical wiring
and pews from a larger build-
ing and donated the steeple to
a church in Stapleton that
needed one.
"We are just thankful that
things worked out and that
we'were able to get this build-
ing and help these people,"
Kunz said.
^ John Braden's a-mail address
is john.braden@theeagle.com.
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