Farewell to circa 1917 Louisa church

Tim Preston/The Independent

Louisa May 21, 2009 10:03 pm

— After meeting downtown each Sunday morning for nearly a century, members of Louisa United Methodist Church will have their final service Sunday morning in the building that has served their congregation and the community since 1917.
The church building at the corner of Madison Avenue and Ricky Skaggs Boulevard will soon become property of the Lawrence County Fiscal Court, minus the large stained glass windows and a few pews, and is expected to be converted into office space.
The following Sunday, church members will gather in their nearly completed new church on Town Hill, overlooking the city of Louisa.
“I’m just real impressed with the vision they had,” said the Rev. Guy Moyer, who came to the church about two years ago as plans for the new church were being finalized. Moyer said the church members wanted to provide a future home for generations to follow, and establish “a gathering place for the community.”
“They have invested a huge amount of themselves in this,” Moyer said.
Like many other churches with downtown locations, Moyer said the church in Louisa was essentially “landlocked” with little option for growth. The church has a congregation of more than 100, Moyer said, and an average Sunday attendance of 125.
The new church is situated on a five-acre plot with features including a three-quarter-size gymnasium in the Life Center, a commercial kitchen, classrooms and meeting space, offices and a sanctuary capable of seating 350. Moyer said the sanctuary is approximately three months from completion, and the church will have worship services in the new Life center until that time.
The new facility will also utilize “some really tall, gorgeous stained glass windows,” and pews from the downtown church, in a smaller chapel, the pastor said.
Church members recently opened the time capsule left at the cornerstone of the downtown church, Moyers said, providing a fascinating glimpse into the history of the church and Louisa itself. Considering the compact size of the time capsule, Moyer said he was surprised at the amount of information and materials church members from nearly a century past were able to fit inside.
“It was unbelievable the amount of material they had,” Moyer said, explaining many of the documents in the package were guides for church organization and governance, as well as hymnals, class rosters and notes about missionary efforts.
“There was also a tremendous amount of newspaper articles,” he said, explaining the construction of the church was well-documented in editions of the Big Sandy News as well as the Lawrence County Recorder.
“The thing that struck us as missing was photographs — pictures, faces to go with the names,” Moyer said. “When we set the next box we want to make sure we have some pictures of the folks who are part of this.”
Church historian Bill Jackson said the time capsule also contained a Bible, postcards, copies of trade publications including Stonecutter’s Journal, signatures of choir and committee members, church directories and journals. Jackson said accounts of the church’s construction were included in both “the Democrat and Republican newspapers” printed in Lawrence County at the time the structure was built.
Jackson said the history of the Methodist Church in Lawrence County could easily fill a book. The church was established in the city in 1832 when a Methodist circuit rider paid $200 for a two-story frame building on a lot where the downtown church’s parking lot area is now. A second church was completed in 1850 at the corner of Madison Avenue and Water Street.
The Civil War split the Methodist Episcopal Church into northern and southern units, and the Louisa church was used by Union soldiers as a commissary and stable from 1862 to 1866, causing much damage to the structure.
The final service at the downtown church will start at 10 a.m. Sunday.
TIM PRESTON can be reached at tpreston@dailyindependent.com or at (606) 326-2651.