Members of a Fredericton church have voted to demolish a historic building in the city's downtown.

The Brunswick Street Baptist church is expanding on property it owns, including the 114-year-old York House, one of the city's oldest buildings, which formerly served as Fredericton High School.

A committee found the building contains asbestos, PCBs and lead, and it would be far too expensive for the church to renovate.

Congregation member Paul Green said a vote Tuesday night was 85 per cent in favour of the expansion.

He said there's no time set for the demolition of York House, because the church's expansion project has not been designed yet.

"Right now the next stage is to contract a firm to do that work, prepare that preliminary design and preliminary cost estimate, so no, as far as the 'when', we're not sure," Green said.

Congregation members understood why heritage groups were opposed to the razing of York House, Green said, but they felt the expansion had to go ahead, and the original building could not be part of it.