STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• Comments
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly
• News alerts
• Subscribe to the paper
• Submit a news tip

More Community

• Students fired up about raku
• At holiday parties, women are birds, men are pigs
• Travelin' in Time: History drive

SHARE THIS STORY [?]

Travelin' in Time is a weekly look at historic places in the north state.

How to get there

Take Highway 299 to McArthur Road in downtown McArthur and turn left. Drive about four miles and the church is at Brown and McArthur Roads.

What to see

A historic, active, country neighborhood church in a picturesque place with Mt. Shasta and a historic flour mill in the background.

The church has also been a favorite subject for many artists and photographers over the years.

The history

The Glenburn Community Church was built in 1885. On Sept. 10, 2005, it celebrated its 120th anniversary.

It sits serenely in the middle of agricultural fields in the Fall River Valley, with Soldier Mountain to the west, Mt. Shasta to the north, and the historic Swasey flour mill on the northeast - all visible from the church grounds.

Years ago George Rock donated the land where the church was built. Much later, church attendance was low and plans were being made to sell the church building for the materials it contained. Local farmer and Baptist preacher William Hollenbeak purchased the church and saved it from destruction. Today, his 89-year-old granddaughter Iona Strickland is an active church member and very proud that her grandfather saved the community church from extinction.

The one-room church was originally heated with a wood stove located in the center of the congregational area. That original wood stove was replaced with an identical stove taken from the historic Beaver Creek School, which was demolished about 1956. Since it was almost identical to the Glenburn Church wood stove, and in better condition, it was removed from the school and installed in the church.

In 2005, that same old wood stove was removed from the church and donated to the Fort Crook Museum, where it is displayed today along with a sign explaining its history.

It was hard for the church members to let go of their warm and cozy wood stove, but the time had come to upgrade. The church is now heated by a modern forced-air gas furnace installed in an addition blended into the north wall of the sanctuary.

Over the years, ministers of many denominations have served the church. Bill Myers is the current pastor who has enthusiastically led his flock of approximately 70 families to service every Sunday for the past six years.

Myers and his congregation are in the midst of raising $30,000 for church repairs. Church repair work is an ongoing project and one the congregation is careful to keep historically correct.

On the north side of the church grounds are two more white buildings. The building closest to the church is the school, which was built in the 1930s to replace the first and oldest school in the Fall River Valley that was destroyed in a fire.

The 1930s school was moved to Fall River Elementary School. The church loaned the school on the condition it would be returned to the church when it was no longer needed.

Unfortunately, when the school was ready to return the building, state laws had changed and the school could not legally return the school back to the church, a religious nonprofit corporation, even if it was the previous owner who had lent it t o the school in the first place.

Keeping within the law, an open auction was held. As the story goes, word was passed around town that anyone daring to bid against the church for its building could count on being ostracized from the community.

The school was auctioned off to the highest bidder and church members happily welcomed it back to the church grounds with open arms.

Today, the schoolhouse serves as the children's church and nursery, and is also the place where food is prepared and served. Various community groups use all three buildings throughout the year, provided their values and purposes do not conflict with those of the church.

The third building on the church grounds was constructed in the 1980s to provide office and classroom space. And because the congregation strives for historical integrity, the siding was specially milled using jigs that had been used at the Dana mill to form the siding for both the church and the schoolhouse years before.

This little country church wouldn't be complete without a bell in its steeple.

The bell is often rung on Sunday mornings before services with a rope located in the sanctuary foyer.

It's also rung at the end of wedding ceremonies.

Church service begins every Sunday morning at 11.

Dottie Smith is the author of "The Dictionary of Early Shasta County History" and the former curator of the Shasta College Museum. Check out her daily history blog at www.redding.com. Contact her at historydottie@yahoo.com.