Vinland — A small group of friends and neighbors didn't want to see an old church fall apart.
So, a few months ago, they started talking and are now forming a limited liability corporation to spread the renovation costs and get the job done. The group plans to restore the Vinland Presbyterian Church, where James Naismith once preached for two years.
A group of friends and neighbors are forming a partnership to restore the Vinland Presbyterian Church. Gathered Thursday outside the church are, from left, Ray Wilber, Jan Nitcher with her son, Will, 7, and Ivy Fife with her daughters, Callie, 7, and Zoey, 10.
"I think we all realized if we didn't step forward, we would probably only have ourselves to blame if something would happen to the building," said Ivy Fife, who is working on the project along with her husband, Darrel.
Renovating the church will be laborious, group member Ray Wilber said, but members can work on the project as they have time.
During the first year, Wilber said, the group plans to stabilize the church's foundation and put on a new roof. He said the group also is working on the three-bedroom house attached to the church that once served as part of the Sunday school, which was established in 1910. The plan is to rent the house soon to help pay for the mortgage.
Another member, Stan Lawson of Atchison, is preparing an outline of the church's history and is applying for a designation on the National Register of Historic Places. If accepted, Wilber said, the group could apply for grant money to improve the church.
In Vinland, Grange Hall was placed on the national register last year thanks to the efforts of the Vinland Fair Board, and resident Mel Verhaeghe has applied for a historic designation for Coal Creek Library, considered the oldest library west of the Mississippi River.
Wilber said the weathered-looking church represents a major part of the town's heritage.
The church was built in 1879. Naismith, who invented basketball and was Kansas University's first basketball coach, preached at the rural church from 1915 to 1917. Naismith died in 1939.
"At the time, he would come out every two weeks and he would stay with a local family here, preach and then go back to Lawrence," Fife said.
The church disbanded during the 1950s.
For Wilber, who has restored two Vinland houses, working on the old buildings helps retain the rural character of the small unincorporated town, just north of Baldwin.
"We have a great deal invested in the community." he said. "We see it as our job to protect some of the things that we love.
No comments
Commenting is turned off for this story.