First Presbyterian Church celebrates 100th anniversary of the completion of its sanctuary building

LA GRANDE — The First Presbyterian Church of La Grande commemorated the 100th anniversary of the opening of its main sanctuary building on May 19, with a service on Pentecost Sunday.

The completion of the First Presbyterian Church’s sanctuary building in 1924 came 38 years after its founding. The church began with six charter members on April 25, 1886, according to Ginny Mammen, of La Grande, a member of the church who has done extensive research on its history.

Eight months later, a small wooden building was dedicated as the initial First Presbyterian Church structure. It was located in the same triangular piece of land where the current church stands today at 1308 Washington Ave. The land was donated by Union Pacific Railroad.

It is not known why the railroad donated the land to the First Presbyterian Church, said Ellen Barton, a member of the church for several decades and an active volunteer.

“The railroad may have wanted a place for its employees to go to attend church,” she said.

The donation of the land was made less than two years after the railroad arrived in La Grande in July 1884.

While photos of the church’s original sanctuary building show ordinary windows, the present sanctuary features striking stained-glass windows.

Aesthetically speaking, the stained-glass windows are the collective cornerstone of the church, colorful century-old works that tell biblical stories not with words but with the light they capture.

“They are so beautiful and add so much. They are the first thing many people notice,” Mammen said.

The stained-glass windows were made by the Povey Brothers Studio, of Portland, she said. The company, which operated from 1888 to 1928, was known for windows that had “unequaled quality and beauty,” according to an article on Preservation Artisans Guild website.

The many other places the stained-glass windows made by the Povey Brothers Studio can still be seen today include the skylight of the courtroom of the Oregon Supreme Court Building in Salem. The skylight features the state seal.

Many of the stained-glass windows have small brass plaques on their frames that indicate who gave donations for the windows or who a window is in memory of. The church now has a biographical record of each of these individuals due to the research of Mammen.

People who are honored on the plaques include those with standard yet intriguing life stories. Henry Anson is an example. He was a grocer with a store located at the corner of Adams Avenue and Elm Street. Anson was born in England in 1843 and as a young boy moved to Ohio and then to Iowa with his parents. Anson moved to La Grande in 1869 with his wife, Esther Melissa Parker, whose name is also on the plaque.

Anson’s life story is intriguing because he was among La Grande’s earliest residents and he did not have access to train transportation when he moved to the Grande Ronde Valley — railroad service to La Grande was not available until 1884. This means the odds are good that he traveled by wagon on the Oregon Trail in 1869.

People attending services at the First Presbyterian Church have become accustomed to the rich sounds from its pipe organ, which has been played almost every Sunday since 1978 by Mary Helen Garoutte.

Keith Hudson, co-pastor with his wife, Laura Hudson, said Garoutte, who is in her early 90s, does such a wonderful job that he hopes she never steps down.

“I told her that I want her to play at my funeral,” Keith Hudson said. “Mary Helen is eternal no matter what she says.”

Pennies from heaven?

Today’s First Presbyterian Church of La Grande has a seamless look to it but in fact the east side of the building includes its education center, which has classrooms, offices and a community meeting room that was added on in two segments in the 1950s.

Children helped raise money for the construction of the addition by donating pennies to the building fund, Barton said. The children would be given credit for a contribution of a brick for the project, Barton said, if they brought in a certain number of pennies.

“Those pennies really added up,” Barton said.

The many things the First Presbyterian Church has become known for during its history include reaching out to its community. For example, the First Presbyterian Church participates in the Neighbors Together food pantry and firewood lot; the Friday Backpack program, which provides weekend food for children; and the Koinonia House, which supports Eastern Oregon University students. The congregation also provides a community meal to the public each fall and spring.

The church is also known for Boy Scout Troop 514, which it has sponsored for at least 80 years, according to Eric Valentine, a volunteer for the troop and a congregation member. The troop’s scouts have spent countless hours doing community service projects, including the building of park benches and tables, restoring trails and participating in community food drives.

The First Presbyterian Church is in a better position today to assist the community due to its Friendship Center, which opened across the street from the sanctuary in the 1990s at 1204 Spring Ave. The church bought the former Hub City grocery store building and converted it into a events site that can be rented out by the public and is used for church activities.

The church does not have more expansion plans, but Keith Hudson feels good about the future of the church.

“It is going well,” he said.

He noted that membership dropped during the COVID-19 pandemic but it is continuing to rebound.