Toomer's Corner became holier Monday, Aug. 17, as four representatives of downtown churches blessed the corner and gave thanks for the end of construction.
Each of the four ministers bestowed a blessing in turn after Mayor Bill Ham Jr. welcomed the crowd, which comprised of residents and city officials.
Wells Warren, priest at St. Dunstan's Episcopal Church; Tripp Martin, pastor of Auburn First Baptist Church; Rachel Winter, associate pastor and campus minister of First Presbyterian Church of Auburn; and Charles Cummings, associate minister of Auburn United Methodist Church, bestowed a blessing on the corner.
"We ask your blessing upon this corner, that it will be for many, many years to come a sign and a symbol of the Loveliest Village, a place of friendship and of eagerness and excitement, a place where we know that we're all a part of the Auburn Family," Warren said.
Winter said blessing the corner with fellow clergy was a great experience. She said she is happy the construction is completed because her church was close to the construction.
"Our church was right on one of the streets where the traffic came when the construction was happening, so traffic has gotten much better and it's much easier to get in and out of the church," Winter said.
Warren said it has been a long summer. His church has been downtown since 1923.
"[The construction] didn't help attendance at St. Dunstan's any," Warren said. "But it's a wonderful thing and I think it's well worth the wait."
Ham said churches have been a part of Auburn's history for more than a century.
"They are anchors to our community and what means so much in the everyday life of our community," Ham said.
Ham expressed his appreciation to the downtown merchants, and said they were the "life blood" of downtown, as well as Bailey Harris construction company, which remodeled the corner.
"I can't tell you the number of people in calls, emails and letters that I received that said, 'Y'all are crazy, this will never happen on time,'" Ham said.
Ham said the blessing is a culmination of the summer's efforts.
"I think it just brings the community together for this purpose and says, 'Hey, it's done, we're finished, we're proud of it,' and we want everybody to come together and support the efforts," Ham said.
Eric Stamp, owner of the downtown T-shirt shop, Stamp, said he is happy construction is over.
"I'm personally satisfied, and everybody I've talked to has been pretty impressed," Stamp said.
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