First Presbyterian Church expands into the future

By DEVIN WEEKS

Staff Writer

COEUR d’ALENE — Downtown Coeur d'Alene's First Presbyterian Church has a motto: "LOVE1st."

The concept of "first" is strong with the church for several reasons, especially because First Presbyterian was the very first church erected in Coeur d'Alene proper when the future of the town was still unknown.

"There were no organized churches in town. It was a major move, it was the very first church building," said local historian Robert Singletary. "They were the first one to raise the money and get an architect and build an actual building."

Coeur d'Alene didn't have many permanent residents before the town was incorporated in 1887. It had hotels and eventually a few schools, but no church buildings except for the Fort Sherman Chapel in the Fort Grounds, which was outside town.

Small congregations of faith met in private homes, school houses, meeting halls and even held session under shady trees in nice weather, including a Presbyterian Sunday School led by Anna Warner, who was one of the first postmistresses and wife of Coeur d'Alene's first official leader, Mayor C.D. Warner. The Warners, along with Rev. George L. Deffenbaugh, were instrumental in helping to organize the Coeur d'Alene Presbyterian Church in 1888.

"The town was extremely small and made up just a few blocks on Sherman,” Singletary said. “Up until the ’90s, the town was kind of transient. People were coming here. Gold had been discovered, silver had been discovered. The rail line came through here right down to Third Street and they made another rail line starting over at the Old Mission on the river and they used steamboats, so basically this was a town that most of the people worked either on steamboats or they worked in the mining industry. It was a growing town."

The appearance of brick buildings and the First Presbyterian Church at the corner of Sixth Street and Lakeside Avenue in 1890 indicated that Coeur d'Alene was more than a transient town — it was here to stay, just like its first church.

"We’re a cornerstone of the downtown,” said Steven Balas, First Presbyterian's director of communications. "Communities in general are starting to look to their roots a little more to understand who they are and where they came from, and I think we’re sitting right there. If you take a look, First Presbyterian Church has been there since the beginning. The old historical churches and the community within the church and the congregation are typically stabilizing influences and very positive influences on the community as a whole. We’ve always played that role."

While First Presbyterian is embedded in the history of downtown Coeur d'Alene, it is planning to continue its relationship with the community into the future.

The church is undergoing an expansion and remodel that will allow it to foster that relationship and invite even more people to come together under its roof.

The $1.3 million project — which began with a carefully planned capital campaign in 2016 — will make First Presbyterian more accessible for people of all abilities, more welcoming and more spacious.

With the old design, the handicap entrance was inconvenient for those of limited mobility. Pastor Craig Sumey said that was the first order of business in planning the remodel.

"You had to go through two-thirds of the building just to get into the sanctuary. That was tortuous,” he said. "We knew that a big deal had to be getting handicap accessibility right off the street, parking and just a few steps into the sanctuary.”

“It was quite a workout to go all the way around in a wheelchair or walker,” Balas added.

The new design will include an elevator and a wheelchair lift as well as potential valet parking into the lot across the street.

The greeting area is another focal point of this project.

“The place to meet people before and after we have our worship services was way off the beaten path, and if you didn’t know what you were looking for, even with signage, you really couldn’t find that place," Sumey said. "Lobby is huge. It’s very, very important; it’s the hub of the church, and we didn’t have one. So, we decided to expand into an empty space that had been here for decades, since the ’50s, that was between this building and the sanctuary.”

The front entrance is getting a facelift as well.

"Like all old churches, we had four or five ways to get into the church," Sumey said. "Now we’re going to consolidate that and we’re going to have folks come in a big, glass front new entrance that’s easy to spot where they can just flow right into the community."

New curbside drop-off area, new fellowship hall, new utility yard, new café and coffee bar and better overall use of space as well as updates to modernize bathrooms can all be expected in the revamped church when the overhaul is done. 

“It was crazy, you know, vintage 1950s bathrooms where you didn’t think about accessibility, you didn’t think about space the way you do now,” Sumey said. "It was absolutely critical we did this, and we’re glad it’s happening."

The historic sanctuary, complete with its original beautiful stained glass windows, arches and pews, was refurbished four years ago and will continue to be lovingly preserved.

The expansion project is expected to be complete just in time for Christmas.

"We’re the only church of faith-based community in the commercial district that has a physical presence. We take that really seriously,” Sumey said. "That means that we have the closest proximity to the greatest number of people in town, so the way we handle ourselves is very important. It’s a witness to who God is, who Christ is. This was never just for us. The discussion was always, ‘How can this be something for the downtown community?’

"It’s a benefit to us, but the main thing for us was, ‘How could this make First Pres more a part of downtown?’ That is going to be an ongoing project that will go way beyond this building, but the building needed to be better situated," he continued. "You can’t say you’re going to do those things and have what we had."