My dear neighbor lady, Marie Smith was the most wonderful story-teller I’ve ever known and well-versed in Sheldon history. She had lived across the street from the now-demolished Strykersville Baptist Church for many years and I pressed her for her remembrances of it. Marie didn’t disappoint!

The church was a grand structure, one of several built by Mr. Calvin Rogers in the 1840’s. It stood on Main Street, Strykersville at the end of Sanders Hill Road. Marie remembered that as children, she and her playmates would sneak into the abandoned church to climb around the choir loft. Stern warnings from parents didn’t deter them from playing hide-n-go-seek in the vacant building.

In the 1960’s, very early one morning, before arising for the day, Marie and her husband David awoke to the most earth-shattering explosion at the Baptist Church. Every window in the church was blown out and glass was strewn into the street in front of her house. The huge bell in the church tower had come crashing down, and smashed through the ground floor of the church and landed in the basement. It was soon after that demolition of the church was completed, and today only a vacant lot with a split-rail fence denotes the site.

I may have seen the church when I was a small girl as my family vacationed at Ken-Lee Haven campgrounds every summer and our route from Buffalo took us right down Main Street. I really don’t remember the church building. However, for all of us who missed that glorious sight, there is a replica of the church in Curriers which is maintained by the Seventh Day Adventists.

Submitted by Susan Szucs, Strykersville NY