After plenty of tears and plenty more prayer, demolition has begun on the beloved building that once housed the Athens Bible School family.

ABS President Randall Adams and board member Lynn Persell each called the moment “bittersweet.”

“There’s a lot of memory there,” Persell told The News Courier as parts of the building were pulled or knocked to the ground.

When ABS first opened, it was on the outskirts of the city, surrounded by farmland. Now, the city has grown around the old campus, and ABS has grown enough to need a new campus closer to the city’s current outskirts.

“It is bittersweet,” Adams said. “However, we’ve worked for this day a long time. The old had to give way for the new.”

For now, the plan is for Grayson Carter & Son Contracting to remove old classrooms, an annex and some bus garages but leave other portions of the campus, such as the chapel and gym, still standing.

“We’re trying to do what we can to enhance the property for future use in the city,” Persell said.

Tony McCormack with Progressive Realty Group is handling the sale of the nearly 10-acre lot, which could be split into smaller tracts or sold as a whole. McCormack invited anyone with questions about the property to give him a call at 256-232-5053.

As for Persell, he hopes that, whatever it becomes, the property is something that complements the city and community. Persell is the son of two ABS students, the father of an ABS student and a former student himself, so he knows firsthand how much the old campus means to the Athens Bible family as a whole.

“A lot of people put a lot of work into building this building and having a place for kids to come to and be educated,” he said. “We’re not wanting anything that would hurt them or their work in any way, or the sacrifice they made to build it.”

Adams and Persell said many people stopped by before the demolition to get items or even bricks as keepsakes of that work and sacrifice. Adams said some current students cried as they mourned their former school building, and several alums have visited multiple times to take pictures or say goodbye.

“It’s the end of an era,” he said.