Iconic Laramie 90-Foot-Tall ‘Boat Church’ To Be Demolished

LARAMIE — For more than a half-century, the soaring, sharp-peaked roof of the First United Methodist Church has been impossible to miss on Laramie’s North Side.

The 90-foot-tall angular structure, fondly nicknamed the “Boat Church” by locals, is set to disappear from the skyline any day now, Paster Eric Feurestein told Cowboy State Daily.

The sanctuary had already long since been gutted when he stepped inside Thursday afternoon. It was cold and dim as a hail and snowstorm closed in on the city.

Though uniquely eye-catching, the structure never was particularly great for worship services, Feurestein said.

“The acoustics in here were terrible,” he said. “When it was first opened, there was a seven-second echo inside here. They added sound slats along the walls, and that cut the echo delay down to about four seconds.”

Time To Move On

The unique sanctuary was designed in 1965 by architect George S. Hoover of the Denver firm W.C. Muchow and Associates, according the Wyoming chapter of the American Institute of Architects. The building was dedicated in 1968.

In the church office, Feurestein showed a framed drawing of an initial, far-more-modest design for the sanctuary.

The building still would have been sharply peaked, but about half the height and with a traditional steeple. But in the end, Hoover’s more ambitious design prevailed.

There’s been talk for about a decade of tearing the aging sanctuary down. And in the last few years, it’s really started to show its age. It’s rusting in places and showing an alarming lack of structural integrity.

The congregation last met there in 2019, and it’s essentially been empty since, Feuerstein said.

“This space also had poor ventilation, so during COVID, we couldn’t meet in here because of the ventilation concerns,” he said.

And by the time pandemic protocols were lifted, it was decided that the sanctuary was just too far gone to salvage, Feuerstein added.

Thankfully, the church didn’t have to relocate. Its annex building has plenty of space, and a section of it was remodeled to serve as the sanctuary, he said.

So, the congregation hasn’t missed a beat and has continued to observe all its regular worship services and host a full range of community activities within the annex building.

‘No Takers’

As for the sanctuary space, he said the church has tried for about four years to find somebody or some organization that might want to repurpose it.

“There were no takers,” he said.

Even after it was set for demolition, the church put out feelers across several states looking for anybody interested in repurposing any of the beams or other large sections of the structure.

Again, there was no interest, he said. What can be recycled, such as wiring, will be. What can’t will simply be hauled off to the demolition section of the Laramie landfill.

But at least pieces will be salvaged from of one of the sanctuary’s standout features — a gigantic, round colored-glass window that dominates a high section of the east wall.

“Folks will take some pieces of that. They can be used to make wind chimes or perhaps Christmas ornaments,” Feuerstein said.

What’s Next?

The sanctuary building will be razed to the concrete pad, maybe within only a week or so, he said.

So far, there hasn’t been any interest in any outside entity to build anew upon the pad, which is still in great shape.

“We were thinking that maybe somebody would like to build something like a venue for weddings there, but nobody responded,” Feurestein said.

So at least in the near-term, the pad will sit empty while the church continues to use the annex to carry on its mission of serving God and the community.

“We might eventually build another sanctuary on that space,” Feuerstein said. “But we’d probably go with a much more traditional structure if we do rebuild there.

Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.