The building site of the Borst Park Church is seen Tuesday afternoon in Centralia.
Blueprints for the Borst Pioneer Church are slated to take physical form later this month thanks to a helping hand from the woodshop and construction class at Centralia High School.
The pioneer-period replica church will be built at Fort Borst Park near the historic Borst home, the replica schoolhouse and the heirloom garden near the confluence of the Skookumchuck and Chehalis rivers.
Original plans for the church called for its shell to be erected last October; however, a delinquent delivery of the roofing trusses forced a delay on the bulk of the work.
With winter weather looming, the decision was made to cover up the existing structure and push the construction date back to springtime in order to avoid water and weather damage.
With true spring just a week away, the ball is already rolling again on the next phase of the Borst Pioneer Church thanks to the generosity of Mitchell Smith, construction teacher at Centralia High School.
Smith has volunteered to bring his class out to the park in order to put up the shell of the church later this month, and preparations have already begun in class at the high school.
This will not be Smith’s first time making his mark at Fort Borst Park.
Twenty-two years ago, he and another class of Tigers built a one-room schoolhouse by the historic Borst home. According to Jean Bluhm, who performs historical reenactments at Fort Borst Park and has also spearheaded the pioneer church project, she recently received a phone call from that Centralia graduate letting her know how much the project meant to him.
“He said the whole class grew closer together and were very proud of their contribution to the Borst village,” read an email from Bluhm to The Chronicle.
Thanks to a series of fundraising efforts, the money is already in the bank to pay for the construction, but additional efforts will need to be made in order to pay for the finishing touches. In order to pay for that final round of work, memorial plaques that will be displayed inside the church will be put up for sale.
“We would like to offer the community, a group of people from a family, a club or church, an opportunity to remember a well-loved, respected person who has passed on by adding that person’s name to a memorial plaque,” wrote Bluhm. “An honor plaque will be provided for those individuals who are still living. We are asking a minimum of $100 for each person added to original name.”
Another fundraising effort will allow folks to have their names engraved into the back of the new church benches.
A full bench can be reserved for $450 and a half bench will cost $300.
Donations to the project are tax deductible. In order to order a memorial or honor plaque, print the name and address of the donor and the name of the person being honored exactly as it should appear and send the information to United Way of Lewis Co., 450 NW Pacific St., Chehalis, 98532, care of “Pioneer Church.”
An email from Bluhm noted that, “Any undesignated donation will be used to complete the church and furnishings. We appreciate all contributions of money, materials and labor. This has been a community project from the start and we welcome each of you to be a part.”
