WESTBROOK – The Unitarian Universalist building in Westbrook is up for sale, and a Portland church hopes to buy it to save it for the community, rather than see it become condominiums or a commercial property.

“That’s our fear, that someone would do that and chop it up,” said Trudy McNulty, of the Allen Avenue Unitarian Universalist Church in Portland. She is leading that congregation’s effort to purchase the building at 719 Main St., which was built in 1888. “No. 1, it’s just too beautiful a building inside to do that, and No. 2, it has always been a resource for the community and it ought to stay that way,” she said.

McNulty said that the church – no longer in regular use by its dwindling congregation of less than 10 members – is owned by the Northern New England District-Unitarian Universalist Association.

“We are in negotiations to buy it,” McNulty said.

She said the Allen Avenue church doesn’t want it for its own use, but instead hopes to sell it to some nonprofit organization.

“Our hope is that it could be kept and used as a community resource,” McNulty said.

She said one possible community use being discussed is turning the church into a multicultural center for Westbrook.

She said she has been talking to the city’s Human Relations Committee about that possibility. The committee was created about two years ago by police Chief William Baker to promote civil rights, personal dignity and positive relationships in the Westbrook community.

Michael Freysinger, chairman of the committee, said the group recently decided to form a steering committee to identify the specific needs that a multicultural center may be able to meet, and to explore possible locations for it.

He said the old church is one possibility, but that another option now under consideration would be to locate the center in the city’s new community center on Bridge Street. The community center is for all residents and the multicultural center would be, too, Freysinger said.

McNulty said that regular services haven’t been held at the old church since last June. Only a wedding and a memorial service have taken place there since that time.

She said that as with many churches, the congregation “got older and smaller and it just became too much for them to keep going.”

She said the congregation wanted the Allen Avenue church to have the building because the Westbrook and Portland congregations previously had a close relationship – they were once one congregation back in the 1800s.

The Allen Avenue church has submitted an offer to the northern New England district and is waiting to hear back, McNulty said.

“We hope to hear relatively soon,” she said Tuesday.

She declined to say how much the Allen Avenue church has offered. She said the Allen Avenue church would not seek to profit if it secures the building and sells it to a nonprofit.

“We’re not trying to make money,” she said. “We’re trying to live our values and have this go to a good use, something that would help the community.” What that use would be is something that would be determined by the community, she said.

The wooden church, set on about one-third of an acre, is listed at $209,000 by Town & Shore Associates of Portland. It has such features as original woodwork and stained glass windows.

It has a large finished meeting area on the lower level and a sanctuary with its original wooden beams on the upper level.

Jeff Davis, the real estate agent handling the property, said there has been considerable interest since it was listed about six weeks ago.

He said that in addition to the Allen Avenue church, other churches also have expressed interest. A developer also has looked at it, as has a children’s services organization, Davis said.

He said the property needs some work.

“There are some maintenance issues,” he said. “The roof, the electricity and the furnace are not new.”

Mike Sanphy, president of the Westbrook Historical Society, said construction of the church started in 1887, and it was completed in 1888.

Before that, he said, the congregation met in another church building built in 1840 at 917 Main St. In modern times, that building once housed a Montgomery Ward store. Sanphy said it was recently torn down to make way for a new Westbrook Housing project.

Sanphy called the current church building a “landmark” of the downtown. Urban renewal efforts destroyed many of the city’s landmarks, so it’s important to save the existing ones, he said.

“It’s definitely worth saving and it’s definitely worth preserving the way it is,” Sanphy said.

The Westbrook Unitarian Universalist Church, at 719 Main St., is for sale, with an asking price of $209,000.
Staff photo by Tess Nacelewicz