Historic 1934 Lamont church building lost in fire

LAMONT (FBW)-The 70-year-old wood building of Lamont Baptist Church was destroyed in a late afternoon fire April 27. The small congregation, although grieving its historic meeting place, is already making plans to rebuild.

According to church clerk Fannie Mae Purvis, neighbors of the north Florida rural church first reported the fire about 5:30 p.m. When firefighters from Monticello, Ashville and Lloyd arrived after traveling 14 miles, the building was “mostly gone,” Purvis said. The Monticello News reported spectators fell to their knees, weeping, as the roof collapsed and the steeple fell.

Monticello Fire Department officials determined the cause of the fire to be electrical, probably starting in the kitchen, which was housed in an addition to the original structure.

The mostly volunteer cadre of firefighters managed to save only the front wall of the sanctuary. However, when they made their way inside the structure after the fire was extinguished, firefighters found unharmed the cross from the top of the steeple, the pulpit, the pulpit Bible and a communion table, all of which were presented to pastor Glen Lewis.

He told Florida Baptist Witness, through tears, of the firefighter sawing off the cross and laying it in his hands. “These little things hold a lot of memories for a lot of people,” he said.

The church, constituted in 1877, hopes to house the items in a rebuilt meeting place. The congregation, Purvis said, has a “small amount of insurance” to help with reconstruction, which now must meet modern code requirements that they fear will raise replacement costs.

“We will even have to raise the level of our lot to match Highway 27 South - about three feet,” Purvis said.

Meanwhile, about 50 church members - about 20 more than before the fire - are meeting in a screened-in pavilion on the church’s one-acre lot. A near-by Methodist church has offered its facilities - unused after 9: 30 a.m. on Sundays - when weather prevents the use of the pavilion.

“It’s amazing to see how far we’ve come in just one week,” Lewis said. “It shouldn’t amaze us at what God can do - but it does.”

For more information about the church’s needs, call Glen Lewis at 850-997-8762.