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WBUMC marking 5 decades in building
by Gregory R. Norfleet · News · December 07, 2017
In July 1966, Clarence Crew made a motion to construct a new “First Methodist Church” with work to start sometime after Oct. 1.
Paulson Construction Co., owned by Wayne Paulson, would build it for a bid of just under $155,000. Throw in the costs of flooring, plumbing, etc. plus $3,600 in acoustical ceilings and $9,100 for a glass cross, pews and chancel furniture and the project cost reached more than $187,000.
Yet the church had prepared. They started raising money to replace the 1913 house of worship eight years earlier, in 1958, and already had $162,000 covered.
Now, 50 years later, the West Branch United Methodist Church will host a special service to mark half a century in a building that, so far, lasted a little less than a third of the life of the congregation that formed 153 years ago, in 1864.
The 9 a.m. Dec. 10 service will feature remembering the five decades in the new building. Pastor Alexis Williams, Dale and Carol Thomas, Audrey Kofoed and former Springdale United Methodist Church Pastor Ruth Blayer will each speak and the choir will sing. At 10 a.m., church members are invited to enjoy refreshments in the fellowship hall.
Crew said the denomination’s regional office provided the West Branch congregation with drawings for a facility that would run about $400,000. That was too much money, he said, and Paulson helped trim that down to $350,000, but that was still too much.
So Paulson and Crew visited about 35 area churches for ideas, which helped them settle on the present design. Other members of various subcommittees also visited churches, though separately, for interior ideas for things like the kitchen and sanctuary.
“It was well-designed and worked out really well,” Crew said.
Carol Thomas said her more than 50 years in the church included serving as secretary and treasurer, Sunday school teacher, youth director and United Methodist Women’s president. She had only recently joined the church when the board voted to replace the building.
“It was kind of sad,” she said. “I had mixed feelings about the old church.”
In those years after 1958, the church not only raised money, it also weighed options. According to church records, the church board considered seven sites for the new building, including the current site. Two homes “across from the church,” for $24,000; the current site with the next-door neighbor’s home for $25,000; 2.3 acres from the Stuelkes for $9,285; four acres from the Kofrons for $20,000; 2.5 acres and a house from the Speight family for $20,000; three acres and a house from the Hahn family for $25,000; and three acres for $20,000 from the Radford family. In December 1961, the board was leaning toward the Kofron site, “three blocks from the center of town” and “in a prominent place in the community” — a pasture on the north end of Sixth Street.
Crew said the church board eventually realized that they could not control who might move in next door, which made the current site, nestled in a downtown neighborhood, more attractive.
As part of Crew’s 1966 motion, church members would hold their final service in the building on Oct. 2 and start moving furniture and equipment out that day. Paulson Construction and the West Branch Fire Department teamed up to burn down the 53-year-old structure to make way for the new one.
Crew had served as a firefighter at the time and the 1913 church used an “unsafe” fuel heating system. It also had only one small restroom “and so many other things we couldn’t repair them all,” he said.
In the meantime, church services and Sunday school classes spread throughout town, according to the history book, “West Branch: The First 150 years.” St. Bernadette’s Catholic Church opened its sanctuary for an hour each Sunday for worship services, while the school annex, Masonic Lodge, Methodist parish house and church members’ homes served as sites for Sunday school classes and meetings.
The church acquired a strip of adjacent land for the larger building and broke ground on Oct. 16, 1966.
The final cost rose a bit to about $194,000, but on Sept. 3, 1967, the church laid the cornerstone for the 15,000-square-foot facility with a sanctuary seating up to 256 and an overflow room handling up to 100 more. The new building made way for nine Sunday school classes, a pastor’s study, church offices and a kitchen.
The church gathered on Dec. 3, 1967, with Methodist bishop and Rev. James S. Thomas to consecrate the new building.
When Carol Thomas walked into the newly finished building, she remembers thinking it seemed “very modern.”
“We were proud of it, and it was paid for,” she said.
Crew said the ladies in the church wanted the large kitchen and raise money to pay for that portion. One of the most successful fundraisers included dinners — eat in or carry out — on University of Iowa football game days, with members drawing fans off the highway by standing on bridges and holding large signs.
“It’s been wonderful for us,” he said.
Today’s building is largely the same except for the $620,000 addition that included an elevator near the main entrance, which enlarged the foyer and level below it.
Pastors from the past 50 years include: Rev. Charles Haigh, Rev. Roger Tappmeyer, Rev. Max Paige, Rev. Sam Hahn, Rev. Sang Ro, Rev. Richard Paulus, Rev. Scot Patrick and Rev. Alexis Williams Johnson.
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Editor's note: This story was update Dec. 14 to correct Wayne Paulson's involvement with the church, and to clarify what church members did to help design the building and interior.
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