There is a new addition to the outside of St. Nicholas Union Church in the Mahanoy Township village of Suffolk, an addition that the five remaining church members would rather have never seen happen.
Positioned just above the date stone is a for sale-sign. Similar ones are also located at the entrance roads leading to the church from state routes 54 and 4030.
As with many churches in the area, St. Nicholas Union Church has seen dwindling membership over the years. The last worship service was held in 2009. The church building has been used on occasion for practices and concerts by The Patriots, but members decided it was time to put the building up for sale.
Some interior items have been recently removed by an auction dealer, but for the most part, the main worship area still contains the pews, piano, a large painting of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, an illuminated cross hanging from the ceiling, Bibles and hymn books.
Fire destroys church
The current church is the second one for the congregation.
"In 1874, the first church was built on the other side (of the highway)," said Arlene Davidson, Mahanoy City, as she looked through copies of articles about the church published over the 138-year history.
"It was destroyed by a fire in 1922," said member Hazel Bradbury.
"After the fire, the church was built here at this site," said Davidson.
According to a newspaper report, the fire occurred on Nov. 10, 1922, resulting in the church being destroyed with an estimated loss of $15,000 to $20,000, which was partly covered by the insurance.
The blaze was discovered by a boy named Rich Coombe. The St. Nicholas Colliery whistle was sounded, with the colliery fire company responding, although it did not have the equipment to handle the blaze. Eventually firefighters from Humane and Citizens fire companies of Mahanoy City and Columbia Hose Company of Shenandoah responded to knock the blaze down, but the fire took its toll.
One item that did survive the blaze was the church bell, which was donated in 1874 by John Phillips, a small coal operator, and is still in the bell tower. Phillips also donated the land for the original church.
"It's a very large bell," said member David Bradbury.
After the fire, plans began for a new church, but due to the expansion of the colliery operations being very close to the original site, it was decided to move to a new location on the west side of Route 54 in the hollow below the state highways.
"There use to be lot of homes on the other side. That is Suffolk, too," said member James Davidson. "All those homes were taken down to build the breaker."
"So if we wouldn't have been burned out, we would have been moved anyway," Arlene said.
The ground was broken for the current church on May 1, 1923, and the cornerstone with "1923" was laid on Sept. 23, and the dedication ceremonies were held the next day. The dedication of the new church building was held on Sept. 28, 1924.
At its height, about 250 attended the church, filling the worship area on the second floor.
"The foundation cost $729.13," said Arlene. "The building was $17,659.96, and furnishing were $9,024.07. That's a grand total of $27,413.16. The mortgage was burned Oct. 29, 1933."
Becoming a church
While referred to as a church through most of its existence, St. Nicholas was technically not a "church" until 1974.
When the charter was presented to the Schuylkill County Court of Common Pleas on April 27, 1874, it was for the St. Nicholas Union Sabbath School. The charter was granted on June 8, 1874.
"This church at one time was a Sabbath school," said Arlene. "We were not allowed to take in members. We became a church in 1974 instead of a Sabbath school and began to take in members. When it was a Sabbath school, we would have a lot of people attending, but they would join another church since they wanted to be a member of a church. We were a Sunday school, but there were church services here."
She said it is a "Union" church because it is non-denominational. Especially in the earlier days, people came to worship from all denominations.
"Back then there was not a lot of transportation. We had Catholic people coming," said Arlene.
"It's a big area here and everybody walked. There were a lot of people," said David.
The third floor of the church overhangs the lower floors, with James explaining that there were pillars in front with a metal fence.
"There used to be four pillars. You can see them in this picture," he said. "A truck came down over the hill and knocked one pillar down. After a while, the others began to rot so they were removed."
Arlene said the church has had many ministers over the years, including the Rev. Daniel Jones, who was the last pastor, serving about 25 years.
"He was very dedicated to the church," she said. "There was also the Rev. Thomas Evans from Mahanoy City, who was a Baptist minister. He was very dedicated to us, too."
Evans served St. Nicholas for more than 30 years.
Membership decline
In recent years, a new heating system was installed after the stoker went out that led to a great deal of damage.
"When we had an ice storm, we couldn't get down to the church," said Arlene. "The pipes and radiators froze and the walls were covered with ice. We put in a new system costing about $62,000."
Until the installation of the new oil furnace and system was completed, the congregations accepted the invitation from Zion Baptist Church in Mahanoy City for worship services.
"When we were ready to come back here, our pastor had a heart attack and open heart surgery, so then we just joined in with the Baptists and their service," said Arlene. "After that, we lost members. People left, some died. We just couldn't keep this church going with only a few of us left."
There have been no worship services since 2009.
"We only came back to the church for our Patriots concerts," she said.
"We had at least a couple of concerts a year here," said David.
The pink color of the outside of the church draws attention to it by those driving by, but the color was not intentional.
"My husband and the pastor (Jones) that we had at the time painted the church in 1994 for the 120th anniversary," said Arlene. "They painted the church and the steeple, and it was red, but the sun faded it, so now we're known as the 'Pink Church.'"
The church was the hub of the community, she said.
"We used to run socials because we had a big Ladies Aid Society. People had Halloween parties, and we did a lot of Patriots concerts, because this is where we started," Arlene said. "We still rehearse here."
The decision to sell the church was considered after services ended in 2009.
"Since Dan (Jones) was not able to come back to us for a good while, and by the time he was able to, the congregation had dropped off," said Arlene.
Now, the former Sunday school room is used for storage - boxed memories of a church and its congregation that served God and the community for more than a century.