To the editor:
It is with sadness I learned of the demolition of Peterborough’s St. Peter Church. It stands in contrast with when Peterborough almost lost the former Baptist church to a winter fire that gutted the brick edifice not so long ago.
Working as a reporter for the Brattleboro Reformer newspaper at the time, I wrote a letter to my former Peterborough newspaper employer calling for the church to be saved. They wouldn’t run it. Seems the town needed parking. I asked for the letter back. I walked down the street to my former competitors at the Ledger, hat in hand. They graciously ran it.
Vision 2000 came into the fore to save the former Baptist church. The building was roofed and stabilized. It would be rebuilt as the Mariposa Museum. It stands today.
That was then. This is now. We’ve weathered the Great Recession, but the money still hasn’t returned to the region as before. Most are more concerned about survival rather than higher thoughts. And the sense of community is largely gone too. Cyber communities have replaced our real ones. Hopeless and despair have led many to deadly drug use and suicide. Even in strong communities like Peterborough and Exeter.
The loss of St. Peter Church is about more than a loss of heritage, of culture. It presages something darker, more sinister. It is a warning light on the shoals ahead, rocks breaking from under the water’s surface.
Steven William Lindsey
Keene