Vera and James Beal bought Sylvan Street Presbyterian Church in the 1980s in hopes of one day restoring it to its glory days and running their own church.

Over the years that dream never came to fruition.

The church is now just a shell of its former self, but she Vera remembers it well, especially since she has lived across from for more than 40 years.

“It was a church with two steeples on it. On each side, there was a steeple that went up,” she said as she looked at it from her porch across the street.

The steeples are no longer there. They were torn down by the previous owner who had it before the Beals.

“It was very gorgeous. It was a beautiful church,” she said. “It just looks like that now because we don’t have the money to really put into it. We never did get enough money.”

Beal said the steeples were taken down because the previous owner thought they were unstable.

“The people that had it before we did pull the steeples down because they thought the steeples were leaning,” she said. “He pulled them down because he thought there were going to fall down.”

Come to find out, she said they weren’t leaning at all. It was just the way the church was built.

She is not quite sure how long the church has been there, but she knows it has been there for at least half a century.

“I’ve been here 44 years, so it’s been there over 50 years, probably 100 years,” she said. “It’s been there a long time.”

Beal said even more damage was done when a car hit the building, messing up the left side where one of the steeples was removed.

Now, part of the front is crumbling, the stained-glass windows are no more, and the back wall is caving in. Despite that, Beal said she still has hope of one day finding a way to restore the church.

“It would mean a lot to do that,” she said. “I would love to keep it. If I could get some funds to help restore it, that would be great.”

The Beals are ministers for Coalition Salvation Ministry, a ministry they founded and operate next door to the church in a blue building.

Vera said they do programs throughout the year like passing out fruit to senior citizens and gifts to children during Christmas, as well as having Easter egg hunts and Thanksgiving meals. She said they also have a week-long program during the summer to teach children about the different books of the Bible.

Despite not having the means to make her dream come true, Vera said she is holding on to hope of one day finding a way.

“I’ve been holding on to it for that purpose,“ she said.