A number of people showed at Windsor council to make a last ditch effort to save St. George's church in south Walkerville -- but to no avail.

Council officially voted Monday night to demolish the church and hall -- built in 1921 and 1955, respectively.

Elaine Weeks, a local historian and publisher of the Walkerville Times, urged council not to give the church a date with the wrecking ball.

“Once that church is gone, Walkerville will not be the same, and I really think that when you look at Walkerville, you understand how important it is to the city of Windsor,” Weeks said. “It just doesn’t make sense to tear down a piece of heritage from that community.”

A potential buyer, Melanie Paul Tanovich, was also among delegates at the meeting who spoke to the value of keeping the building. She wanted to re-use it as a space for teaching and rehearsing music.

“While it needs some repair, the building is sound and usable for years to come,” she said, referring to independent architectural assessments. “The church and its current institutional zoning would suit my needs.”

But Dave Woodall -- speaking on behalf of the Diocese -- says the offer came in at only 10 per cent of the asking price of roughly 250-thousand dollars.

Coun. Hilary Payne also noted an engineering report gathered by the Diocese says the building is not suitable for adaptive reuse.

Some neighbours who live in the area are eager to see it come down.

Charlotte Colautti told council to “ignore the illogical and impractical message of the heritage activists” and demolish the building.

"For council to refuse that now would be to reverse the decision already made, ignore the reality of the actual building condition and inflict a derelict, crumbled up structure and boarded-up structure on yet another heritage neighbourhood," she said.

Only councillors Rino Bortolin and Chris Holt voted against demolition.

The plan now is to tear it down to make way for residential development.