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This isn't the history of a single congregation. Over time, people come and go. Congregations change and move. This is the story of a building—the church building at 504 Ann Street. Buildings stay in one place. Time passes through them, and change swirls around them. In this history, the building is the unchanging constant. The story of this building is really the story of many congregations and people whose paths have become intertwined and knotted together as they've passed through this one physical location.
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My name is Jonathan Gennick, and I've had the pleasure and enjoyment of researching and writing this history. Why did I do this? Why did I write the history of our building instead of focusing on our congregation? Those are good questions, and the answers will not only help you understand why I wrote this history, but they'll help you understand why I wrote some of the other articles on this website.
I'm a very curious person, and I happen to find old buildings fascinating. Old buildings frequently contains nooks, crannies, and relics from years gone by. Often the reason for these things has been lost over time. Sometimes even the knowledge that they exist has been lost. When I first began attending the University Seventh-day Adventist Church, I noticed several unusual things about the building. First off, there was a dumbwaiter going between the church office upstairs and one of the children's rooms downstairs. I'd never seen a dumbwaiter in a church before. What was it for? Another unusual item was a narrow, winding staircase behind the front platform that snaked down to a closet in the basement.
My most unusual discovery came when I found a fairly large room in the attic of our church's tower. Only two elders knew about that room, and only because they had gone up to fix a roof leak. No one else in the congregation, including our pastor, even suspected the room's existence. Finding that room was the last straw. I had occasionally asked people about the dumbwaiter, and about the winding staircase, but no one seemed to have any knowledge of why they were there, who built them, and why. I decided to find out, and you're reading the results of my efforts. I hope you enjoy it.
I'm indebted to a number of people for their help on this project. Buildings can't talk. That dumbwaiter couldn't tell me why it was there. The tower room couldn't tell me who used it, and the winding staircase couldn't tell me who walked on it. There was no history book for me to crack open, with the story already written. Instead, I had to do some original research. This was quite a new experience for me. I had to find and talk to people who had been around years ago when the church was first built. I also had to read through, and extract information from old documents. I'm still working on this project. I still chasing some of the details.
To begin, I'd like to thank Pastor Roy Castelbuono and the University Seventh-day Adventist Church board. It was Pastor Castelbuono who latched onto the idea of a church website, and who encouraged me to work up a design and a plan for such a site. It was the church board that supported the pastor, approved the plan, and voted to allocate funds for this project. They've also been very indulgent as I've explored and documented several not-so-well-known nooks and crannies in our building.
Glen Johnson, a member of the University Lutheran Church, has my heartfelt thanks for taking the time to recount his memories of his congregation's early years at the corner of Ann and Division. Glen was also instrumental in introducing me to other members of his church who had been around longer, and who could provide additional help and information. During one of my visits to his church, Glen also took the time to show me their prayer chapel, which contains the original baptismal font, cross, and alter from our church building.
Charles and Betty Downs, two members to whom Glen introduced me, were instrumental in providing many of the historical details and photographs that you'll see in this history. Betty went through the time and trouble of retyping an old written history from 1975 into an email so that I could easily have access to that information. Betty also made time in her schedule to search through some old church records in order to find photographs from their early days in our building. Most of the really old photographs that you'll see in this history are a direct result of Betty's efforts.
Did you know that the All Saints Episcopal Church once worshipped in our building? They did, and Reverend Caroline Stacey, together with Anne Watson, were kind enough to provide me not only with dates, but also with a good human interest story.
Pastor Lars Clausen, of the current University Lutheran Church, came through with some much needed help when I was in a tight spot. I had brought a scanner and a notebook computer to the Lutheran church offices so that I could scan some of their historical photographs. Unfortunately, I couldn't get any of my equipment to work. Thanks to Pastor Lars, I was able to use their scanner and computer to scan in the photos.
