Formerly St. Marks Catholic Church, Gordonsville, Virginia 

St. Mark's Catholic Church is in the process of being transformed into the Gordonsville Branch Library. The Catholic Diocese of Arlington traded Orange County the church and property on Gordonsville's main street for some property owned by the county.  The Gordonsville Friends of the Library have raised nearly $300,000 to convert and expand the church building to house the library. The church sanctuary will be used as a reading room.

These pictures were taken in the fall of 2007 while the fund-raising effort was underway. Construction was started last summer and is expected to be completed soon.

I drove through Gordonsville a couple of weeks ago and from the outside, the construction looks nearly complete. Happily, the original church building and facade facing the main street has been preserved mostly intact while a large addition stretches out to the back of the original building.

It is a little sad when a building is no longer able to fulfill the role for which it was originally built, but if an old church is to be reused, a library seems like a good use of it. And thanks to the library, this old church is not being being torn down to make way for an office building or parking lot.

Sitting in the old sanctuary and reading a good book is an inviting prospect.