Another magnificent structure that stood for well more than a century in downtown Hazleton will soon be gone.

The former St. Paul’s Methodist Church on West Green Street fell victim to arson last month, and will now be demolished.

Dedicated by the city’s oldest congregation in 1899, the sanctuary could seat 1,300 under its vaulted and arched ceiling and stained glass skylight, and the massive structure had an attached parsonage and 15-room Sunday school.

Designed by architect Ben Davey Jr. in the Richardson Romaneque style, its foundation was sunk into the same anthracite that fueled the nation’s industrial revolution and this region’s economy.

This Gilded Age glory continued to stand proud even as other later buildings crowded in around, shrouding its exquisite architecture.

But its demise started decades before fire ravaged the upper floors of the enormous red brick and stone edifice.

A dwindling congregation closed the doors in 2004, and a new owner left the structure vacant and uncared for amid unfulfilled plans for the grand complex.

Thieves stole or destroyed its turn of the century furnishings and copper pipes, and vagrants and squatters littered and vandalized its interior. A leaking roof over many years of neglect caused rot as well.

Firefighters had established a plan to battle any flames from the exterior only long before an arsonist cast the final death knell for the endangered historic resource.

Over the years, many hoped to save the church complex, which shares a full half-city block with the Hazleton Area Public Library, their exterior walls just feet apart.

The library actually bought the building in 2019, hoping to find a developer to revitalize the historic structure. Three years later, its board voted to demolish the massive building to save its own.

That’s when the Downtown Hazleton Alliance for Progress, a revitalization group, stepped up to purchase the building, with the same hope of saving this beautiful old structure from the wrecking ball.

Plans to stabilize the structure were announced in June, and a month later, all hope was finally lost.

A profound sadness washed over me the night my husband told me about the church being on fire. I had passed this building almost daily for 30 years, wrote about its beauty, vibrancy and demise, and now mourned the city’s loss.

My mind turned to other long vacant, historic buildings in areas that I now cover, such as the Mrs. C.M. Schwab School in Weatherly, which was designed by the same firm as St. Paul’s, and the former Kiddie Kloes manufacturing and the old Lansford High School.

All three are mere vestiges of their heyday splendor.

I’ve heard plans for all three, and the one for the Schwab School held the greatest promise for the community — housing.

The Alliance for Building Communities secured more than $11 million in funding to see the project through, but it was dependent on taxing bodies approving LERTA.

Weatherly Borough not only approved the tax break, it planned to donate the 30-years vacant building to the Allentown nonprofit.

The Weatherly Area School District refused to grant the 10-year tax concession after a lengthy meeting on the proposal this year.

Now, the project is on hold, as the nonprofit looks for other funding and the school continues to sit dormant.

In Lansford, the borough talked about possibly using the old high school for a borough building, and the current owner of the Kiddie Kloes building talked about mixed use with housing and commercial spaces.

But the only thing I’ve heard is talk, nothing definitive as these buildings continue to age not so gracefully and deteriorate, just waiting for that one spark to end decades of neglect.

I really hope that’s not the case, and that those with the ability to bring change find investors or developers that can save these historic buildings before it’s too late.

And they’re lost forever in time, like St. Paul’s.