An Aldergrove church built in 1911 has been demolished, to the dismay of a local heritage activist.

Originally known as the Aldergrove Presbyterian Church, it was located at 2940 272 St.

The small original church, but not the adjacent hall, was demolished on Monday, Jan. 13, according to a neighbour.

Alder Grove Heritage Society (AGHS) president Tami Quiring said it was a surprise, and that the site doesn't seem to be slated for development.

"I'm pretty upset about it, because our downtown heritage is just disappearing," Quiring said.

By late in the week, everything remaining of the church had been removed from the site.

Quiring said she wished the AGHS had had a chance to go through the building to look for items of historical value before it had been demolished.

"I just hope that in the future, there's some kind of dialogue before these buildings come down," she said.

According to a real estate listing, the site was sold in mid-2023, and is currently leased. It is zoned for commercial use, and could be used as a child-care centre, yoga studio, or medical centre.

The lot first became the site of a church when a New Westminster real estate agent named F.J. Hart offered a free lot to the first church wishing to build in the area, according to the 91原创 Township publication "91原创's Heritage."

The Presbyterians accepted and built a simple wood-frame structure using materials donated by their congregation.

The church opened in 1911, having cost all of $1,500 to build. It became a United Church in 1925, when the denominations merged, and the hall on the north side of the lot, much larger than the original church, was built in 1953.

The United Church moved to a larger location in 1983, and the church then went through a number of owners. In the 1990s it was occupied by the Calvary Baptist Church, and for many years after that, it appears to have been owned or leased by Technocracy Inc.

Technocracy was a movement that began during the Great Depression, which advocated taking away management of the economy from businesspeople and politicians, and putting it in the hands of scientists and engineers. The movement dwindled through the years, and during the Second World War it was briefly declared illegal in Canada as a subversive organization. 

The former church in Aldergrove had a sign proclaiming it was a Technocracy Inc building for many years, and the distinctive red-and-white yin and yang-style symbol the group used was placed on the side of the building.

The building was sold sometime in 2016, and since then has primarily been used as an art gallery and studio.