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Fire destroys historic African-American church in Salisbury

SALISBURY, N.C. — A fire destroyed a historic church in Salisbury that was once one of the area’s oldest African-American churches.

The fire started just before midnight on Wednesday night at the Second Creek Methodist Church on Gheen Road. Crews said when they got there, nearly three quarters of the building was already on fire.

“Right now, we’ve gone house to house and conducted interviews and surveyed the area, and we’ll start on the actual structure in the morning,” said Rowan County Fire Marshal Deborah Horne.

Horne said they’ll be back when the sun rises Thursday to continue their investigation.

The fire marshal added that the church was built in the 1800s and hadn’t held worship services in more than 50 years.

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