While an early 20th century church at one end of Manayunk Avenue has fallen into disrepair, and will most likely be demolished, another historic church building of that era further down the same street will experience a different fate.

The church at Manayunk and Krams avenues in Roxborough is being retrofitted for residential use, the goal to build seven condominium units in the 3,600-square-foot building. Unlike the Holy Temple Church of the Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith at the corner of Manayunk and Monastery avenues, the building has been saved, with the interior gutted, and the exterior refurbished.

The Moyer Memorial Baptist Church dates back to 1908, according to Sylvia Myers of the Roxborough Manayunk Wissahickon Historical Society. It operated as a religious institution until 1925, she said, when it became home to the Patriotic Order of the Sons of America.

In the mid-1930s, the building was sold to the Cahill Cholerton American Legion Post 680, according to Joe McManus, the group's finance officer. The post remained in the building until its recent sale.

According to the city's Board of Revision of Taxes, the building, located at 4557 Manayunk Ave., was sold last November for $215,000.

The new owner, as listed on the BRT's Web site, is a limited liability corporation calling itself Cahill Arms LLC. A subcontractor working on the site identified the owner behind the corporation as Maximum Properties LLC, which is based in Manayunk. Barry Reinhart, a partner with Maximum Properties, did not return a message left on his cell phone.

When reached a month ago, he said he preferred to reserve comment for a later date.

During a visit to the site last month, the subcontractor, Ron Roddy, with Roddy and Son Construction Inc., gave the Star a tour of the building, which will soon be home to seven condo units, three on the first floor and four on the second floor.

"It's definitely a very interesting structure," Roddy said during the visit, which showed the building in the preliminary stages of construction. "It has a very old-school feeling."

Because the building is fairly old, Roddy said measures needed to be taken to stabilize the structure before it could be occupied. This included evening the floor out by installing columns.

Roddy said the goal is to try and keep the historic look intact, namely by leaving some stones and beams exposed within the interior.

Before the recent purchase, others eyed up the building.

"We wanted to gut it and live in it, but we couldn't afford it," said Manayunk resident Cindy Newman.

While she may have been half-joking, Newman's desire to save the building from the wrecking ball reflects the sentiment of others who recognized the historic value in the old structure, which according to McManus, was designed by famed Philadelphia architect Herman Miller.

McManus said the building was good to his post for many years, but eventually things began falling apart.

"It was pretty beat up when it was sold, and that's the reason we sold it," McManus said. "We couldn't afford to fix it up the way it needed to be fixed up."

Problems included a leaky roof, and failing mechanical systems. When the heating system went, post members attempted to fix things themselves, but when they arrived at the boiler, "that was shot, and that would have cost something like twenty to thirty thousand dollars," McManus said. "The post didn't have the funds to maintain the property the way it needed to be maintained."

So, in an effort to appease residents, they sold it to someone who they felt could fix things up.

"We thought we were being unfair to the neighbors," McManus said. "We said to ourselves, 'if we're really community-minded, the right thing for us to do is sell the property and have it reconditioned or rehabbed or have something done with it."

McManus said the "financially smart thing to do" would have been to knock the building down, but recognized its historic value made it worth preserving.

"We basically all liked the building," he said.

Frank Pillar is one person who's happy with the decision not to demolish the building.

"I think that's tremendous, I'm so happy," said the owner of the Manayunk Design Group, a Main Street business that specializes in building restoration and historic renovation. "Somebody actually wants to reuse this building. That's just the greatest news ever."

Pillar said he was recently at the site conducting salvage work. He saved a flag and an old cigarette machine. He wanted to save the floors, but "it's a timing thing," and the goal never materialized.

Pillar would have preferred the building remain a church, or American Legion post, or some type of hall that was its intended use, but he's not complaining, since the structure will be used for something, "instead of just knocking it down and throwing it away."

In the end, the decision was made to convert the building to a residential use, which is better than nothing, Pillar said. In the now-infamous case of La Ronda, the Bryn Mawr mansion that appears to be heading for the wrecking ball after its owner decided a new, 10,000-square-foot single home would better suit him than the Spanish revival structure, the building would have served no use for the current owner. It would most likely have cost the owner more money to rehab it than to tear it down, and start anew, Pillar said.

"Buildings are of no use if people aren't going to use them," he said.

But when you find a historic structure whose owner wants to make things work, that's something special, Pillar said.

At this point, it appears the condo complex may be named Cahill Arms, which McManus, of the American Legion post, confirmed was the information given to him. But if he had his way, Maximum Properties would consider including the name Cholerton as well.

The Cahill Cholerton American Legion was named for two World War I veterans from the area, McManus said.

McManus said he believes Miller, the architect who designed the building, also designed the World War I memorial at Roxborough's Gorgas Park.

Like Pillar, McManus is pleased his post's former home will have a future use that will benefit the community.

"I'm happy to see them retrofitting it," he said. "I think it gives the neighborhood character."

As for American Legion Post 680, McManus said the group is still trying to decide where its 60 members will meet.

"We're probably not going to try to buy another post or another building," he said.

Instead, the post may take the money it made off of the sale and "put it back into the community in some way," which may take the form of scholarships or something similar, although McManus admitted nothing is set in stone just yet.

Reporter Jon Campisi can be reached at 215-354-3038 or jcampisi@phillynews.com