CONCORD TOWNSHIP, Pa. (CBS) – A historic Black church in Delaware County is seeing new life after being destroyed in a fire more than 25 years ago.
This church on Spring Valley Road in Concord Township was once a focal point of the Black community. It’s been closed for 27 years, but now its doors are back open.
“It’s really, really, really a wonderful thing to happen. Unbelievable,” Pandora Anderson said.
Anderson said she, her daughter and her mom all attended Spring Valley African Methodist Episcopal Church until the family moved to Chester County.
In time, congregation numbers declined and the church became abandoned.
Then, in 1997, it was destroyed in an arson.
“Couldn’t believe it. I thought it was gone,” Anderson said. “I thought, you know, history was gone from that church.”
Concord Township bought the land and spent years trying to find enough money to restore the church.