Demolition to begin Monday for former St. Andrew's Church in St. Paul

Demolition of the former St. Andrew's Catholic Church is set to begin Monday morning around 8 a.m.

A backhoe, which was already in place Sunday evening, will likely first take down the bell tower before the rest of the building, which dates to 1927.

The Twin Cities German Immersion School, a charter school that has owned the building since 2013, plans to replace it with a $5.1 million addition built on the same footprint as the church.

Over the past week, organ pipes, doors, marble molding, busts and friezes were salvaged from the inside and outside of the building. The contractor retained some bricks and tiles, which may be used to make a little free library at the site.

The public school's board voted in July 2018 to raze the old church and replace it with a structure that officials say better meets the needs of their nearly 600 students. Since that vote, preservationists and neighbors opposing the demolition have fought to prevent the loss of the building, which they hoped could be saved by a historic designation. But many in that group admitted defeat last month after losing an appeal of a court ruling requiring them to provide a $1.9 million bond to the school.

"Our decision to replace this building was a difficult one, and was based on the needs of our students and teachers and the limited budget of a public charter school," Ted Anderson, the school's executive director, said in a statement, adding that it is "hard for all of us to see a beautiful building torn down."