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Photo by: ED PIERCE/CITIZENTHE FORMER ST. HELENA CATHOLIC CHURCH in The Weirs was demolished on Monday, however a clerical error led to the city of Laconia issuing a permit for its demolition. A property card in the city assessor's office listed the church as built in 1982, avoiding a permit review, but in fact, the church was constructed in 1955.
LACONIA — The former St. Helena Catholic Church in The Weirs has met the wrecking ball's school of hard knocks, but the authorization for its destruction came about as the result of a clerical error.

The church was demolished earlier this week, after a demolition permit was issued by Laconia's Code Enforcement Office for the building's owners, Peter and Kevin Morrissette, who plan to build modular homes on the site.

However, following an ordinance change approved by the Laconia City Council in September regarding the Heritage Commission, structures at least 50 years old with more than 700-square-feet of floor area qualifying as "significant buildings" must go through a more detailed process before they can be demolished.

The ordinance requires a process be set in motion when applications are made to demolish buildings.

If the code enforcement officer determines that the building qualifies as "significant," the demolition permit must be reviewed by the Heritage Commission at its next regularly scheduled meeting before the building can be demolished.

In the case of the former St. Helena Catholic Church, the process never happened because the city's code enforcement officer received erroneous information.

Laconia City Manager Scott Myers said that once the application was made by Morrissette to demolish the church, the code enforcement officer pulled the property card from the city assessor's office to check when the building was constructed.

"The card said 1982," Myers said. "That was under the 50-year mark so the demolition permit was issued."

However, the property card kept by the city in the assessor's office was wrong, as the former St. Helena Catholic Church was built in 1955, some 60 years ago.

"I am upset because I had to read about the church being demolished in the newspaper," said Pam Clark, Laconia Heritage Commission chair. "It's disheartening that the assessor's office had the wrong information on the property card. If anyone would have asked, we would have told them that the church was built in 1955, not 1982."

She said the new ordinance was crafted to avoid situations like this from happening.

"We do not have that many buildings being demolished," Clark said. "So for this to happen without review is greatly upsetting."

Clark said she intends to speak to Myers about the demolition process and make sure lines of communication between city staff and members of the Heritage Commission are open.

"This should not have happened, but we can't go back at this point," she said. "I hope this leads to better communication when things like this come up in the future."

The former church site was originally listed for sale by the Diocese of Manchester in December 2013 and had 5,200 square feet of floor space with a basement and 3.38 acres of land at 326 Endicott St. East, less than a mile from Weirs Beach.

PEM Real Estate, LLC purchased the property for $185,000 from the Diocese of Manchester in December 2014 and PEM partners Peter and Kevin Morrissette originally intended to convert the property to a facility housing long-term watercraft storage and an indoor storage site.

A proposal by the Morrissettes to ask for a Planning Board hearing requesting a zoning change allowing indoor boat storage at the former site of the church was rejected by a 4-2 vote of the Laconia City Council in February.

In its heyday, St. Helena Mission Church offered summer Masses for local residents and tourists visiting the Lakes Region. Prior to its construction, Sunday Masses were celebrated at Irwin’s Winnipesaukee Gardens in The Weirs.

A local couple who owned The Weirs Hotel, Helene and Ralph Poudrier, were active in promoting The Weirs and Lake Winnipesaukee as a vacation spot and donated the land for St. Helena’s to be used as a place of worship for vacationers and local residents.

Bishop Matthew F. Brady of the Diocese of Manchester, a friend of the Poudrier family, officially dedicated St. Helena on July 10, 1955 and it was named in honor of Helene Poudrier’s patron saint, St. Helena.

In 2010, the Diocese of Manchester merged the former Our Lady of the Lakes Church in Lakeport and St. Helena Mission Church with St. André Bessette Parish of Laconia and St. Helena was closed for good.