New Heights Church demolition in downtown Vancouver: Only memories remain

Gary Dunne of Vancouver and his wife, Marlene, stood and watched Friday morning, taking photos and videos, during the demolition of the former downtown location of New Heights Church in Vancouver.

The Dunnes were married at the church, originally called First Presbyterian Church, in 1959. The couple raised three daughters there.

“It just felt like home,” Marlene Dunne said. “The stained glass windows were gorgeous.”

Demolition began earlier this week on the 108-year-old church whose loose brick facade had become a hazard to passersby.

The former west annex of New Heights Church and the block it sits on was purchased earlier this year for $3.2 million by the estate of Ed and Dollie Lynch. The late couple were known for their philanthropy, which continues through a fund held at the Community Foundation for Southwest Washington.

The fate of the block is uncertain.

First Presbyterian Church built the large brick church at 415 W. 11th St. in 1912 after another church on the site had burned to the ground, according to the Clark County Historical Museum. Overfiring the building’s bricks gave them a polychromatic finish.

The church was later owned by the city of Vancouver and used as a performance space called the Columbia Arts Center. The city sold the building in 2000 to entrepreneur Martin Hash, who sold it to New Heights in 2007. New Heights bought the block’s remaining parcels in 2015 from Children’s Center, which had outgrown the space and built a new facility in east Vancouver.