Post Falls Conversion Group Hopes To Move Old Church, Make It Community Center

Tag Jacklin rings the aged church bell - a modern kid jumping up and pulling on the old rope inside the time-worn, dusty church that once housed Community Presbyterian’s congregation.

He’s 12, and he’s everything young and vibrant.

The church is 108 years old, and it’s everything traditional and venerable. And it needs a new place to rest.

The congregation at Community Presbyterian Church, now at 148 members, is growing like the rest of this town.

“We just don’t have enough space without acquiring additional land,” pastor Doug Waltar said. “The church determined that the historic structure was no longer able to serve the growing needs of the congregation.”

That left two options: tear down the building or move it from the northwest corner of Fourth Avenue and William Street.

Congregation members stripped the walls of the old building, but stopped work when they discovered it was more structurally sound than they had expected, said Susan Jacklin, a member of Community Presbyterian. She’s also a board member of Community Building Partners, a nonprofit organization that aims to make a community center out of the building.

So instead of tearing down the historical building, the group has until 2000 to move it to another site, Waltar said. That’s assuming they get final approval from the congregation and the Presbytery, a regional Presbyterian governing body.

Jacklin says that’s likely. “They’ve been supportive of Community Building Partners all along, so it’s just them giving the final blessing.”

The building is laden with history. Frederick Post, Post Falls’ founder, worshipped there, and his memorial service was conducted there when he died. It’s on the National Register of Historic Places.

Before 1921, the building was two churches - one Methodist, the other Presbyterian - in two locations. The congregations moved the two buildings to the church’s current location and joined them. The northern half of the building was originally the Presbyterians’ church; the southern half was the Methodists’.

“The feat of moving both of those structures is phenomenal,” said Jack Barb, a board member of Community Building Partners and a structural engineer. “It’s a true testament to the people involved.”

If the churchgoers in 1921 could take two buildings from different spots in town and put them together, the members of Community Building Partners figure they can move the building again now.

They just need to figure out where. They’re hoping for somewhere near the heart of Post Falls, and they’re hoping someone will donate the land.

Eight years have passed since the last sermon in the building. During summer days, sunshine filters in through large Gothic windows in the southern half, through smaller, more boxy windows in the northern half and peeks into a few small holes in the roof. Exposed, rough wooden beams and trusses line its innards.

“I get a feeling of openness. It’s comfortable, but it surrounds you,” said Jacklin, standing in the expansive sanctuary. “There’s just the feeling of airiness and spaciousness and yet feeling caressed by the walls.”

While the grand old building needs some work, it’s salvage-worthy, Community Building Partners says.

“It’s square and plumb,” Barb said. “There’s no rot. There’s nothing wrong with it.”

But the group has more ideas about what to do with the building than money to spend on it.

Jacklin can see it hosting an art gallery, theater groups, speeches, choirs, town meetings, weddings and community enrichment classes.

Because Community Building Partners only recently attained nonprofit status, it hasn’t raised much money yet, Jacklin said, estimating that its funds are between $5,000 and $6,000. Moving the building will cost between $25,000 and $30,000, and the repair and finishing jobs could cost another $500,000, she estimated.

“Every town has its white steeple in the middle (that serves as a town center), and this is Post Falls’ white steeple,” Barb said. “Without that, we’re just a smear between Spokane and Coeur d’Alene.”

Map of area around Fourth Avenue and William Street

TO HELP If you want to help in the effort to move the old Presbyterian church, call Susan Jacklin at 773-5844.