AUBURN — The steps of the former St. Louis Church in New Auburn will become a kind of amphitheater Wednesday as tours are offered from 3:30 to 5 p.m., hosted by those hoping to restore it as a community arts center.

Among those performing for the St. Jean Baptiste Day celebration will be New Auburn resident Jessica Estabrook.

A social worker, Estabrook will play jigs and reels that the late Maurice Gagnon, her grandfather, wrote: “Carnival Reel” and “Joan’s Polka,” which he wrote for his wife.

“I’m playing on his violin,” Estabrook said Tuesday. She’s also playing at the church where her grandparents were married, on her grandfather’s birthday, June 24.

“It’s special,” she said. “I feel privileged.”

The church means a lot to many in New Auburn, said Auburn architect Noel Smith. Smith and three others are part of Pilotage LLC, which saved the church from demolition in December when they bought it for $75 from the Catholic diocese of Maine.

“This building was central to this community for 100 years,” Smith said. “To lose it would be the end of New Auburn as a community. You can’t come into a space like this and not admire it. It seemed to be a shame to take a wrecking ball to it.”

Work is needed, but overall the building is in good shape, Smith said. The outside is red bricks, towers, a serious Gothic style. Inside, it’s an altogether different feel, more light and airy. The ceiling goes up and up. Walls are light colors with multiple arches.

The goal is to give New Auburn a place to view and participate in Acadian music and dance and other kinds of arts. It would be unlike Lewiston’s Franco Center in that it would be New Auburn-centered, Smith said.

“We don’t see ourselves competing with them,” he said. “We’d like to make this the heart of a creative community,” a center for arts, businesses and crafts.

Inside the main floor of the former church, the altar has been removed. Stained-glass windows remain, as well as pews, a sound system, a working organ and recessed lighting.

Possibly in 2016, “I like to configure this space for different performances with movable chairs and risers,” Smith said. That could happen after a study shows how best to get a fire alarm system installed.

The downstairs needs work. Volunteers plan to start cleanup next month, Smith said. Plans call for the downstairs to eventually host a variety of activities: art businesses, public meetings, youth theater, poetry slams, presentations and classes.

“We’re looking to do lively things that people might come see, dance, and think, ‘I’d like to learn how to do that.’ They’ll be able to,” Smith said.

Asked how the renovation and upkeep will be paid for, Smith said, “That’s a good question.” Pilotage is responsible for the building, he said.

Lewiston’s Franco Center was developed when government grant money was available. “Most of that is gone now,” Smith said. “We’ve got to do something different here, but it’s amazing how strong the community ties are to this building. I run into people all the time who went to church here, whose parents got married here. There is a huge tie to this building.”

A board of advisers is being formed to plan programs. Owners know former churches don’t make money and do well to break even, Smith said. “The primary purpose was to save the building.”

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St. Jean Baptiste Day* events

– Social hour, 11 a.m.; feast, 12:15 p.m., Franco Center in Lewiston.

– Churches across Lewiston-Auburn ring their bells at noon.

– Program, 1:30 p.m. includes speakers, Franco-American Veterans Color Guard, music by Les Troubadours, Franco Center, followed by 2:30 p.m. keynote address by award-winning Canadian author Julie Barlow. Open to the public.

– 3:30-5 p.m., live folk music by local musicians and tours, former St. Louis Church, Dunn and Third streets, New Auburn.

* Feast day of St. John the Baptist, patron saint of Quebec.