The Renton Lutheran Church that stood for about seven decades on South Second Street was demolished Monday to make way for a new center for veterans and their families.

The demolition actually started on Friday, with crews removing the building’s brick facade. At one point, the church’s cross fell to the ground.

Monday, the heavy work began, with the church down and nearly hauled away by about noon.

What couldn’t be saved was a big picture of a kneeling Jesus on a wall inside the sanctuary. It fell in a midst of rubble.

There has been a rumor, too, of a time capsule of sorts in the hand railing at the entryway to the church. It wasn’t found.

Longtime church member Jerry Irwin caught most of the demolition on his videocamera. The congregation closed the church in 2006.

The congregation wasn’t attracting young members, he said Monday, while watching the church come down. The church was hurting financially.

“Our expenditures were way more than what was coming in,” he said.

But, he was philosophical about the building’s fate – and the fate of any building.

“Sooner or later, it’s got come down,” he said. “You have to make room for the new.”

What’s new for the site across from Renton High School is the 59,752-square-foot Compass Veterans Center – Renton.

The center will house 58 affordable apartments for veterans and their families, an outdoor play area for children, a computer lab and common rooms for social activities, community meals and therapeutic group activities.

Below all that, on the first floor, will be Luther’s Table, a coffee shop and bakery by day and a wine bar and music venue by night. St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church will run the place, in collaboration with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Plans call for the center to open sometime late next year.