Pastor Bob Masciola stands on the balcony at the Onalaska Community Presbyterian Church on Tuesday afternoon in Onalaska. The church will celebrate its centennial this weekend with a special service and an ice cream social.
Pastor Bob Masciola walks down the center aisle of the Onalaska Community Presbyterian Church on Tuesday afternoon in Onalaska. The church will celebrate its centennial this weekend with a special service and an ice cream social.
Vintage pictures from the church's earlier days sit in a plastic frame waiting to be mounted on the walls of the dining area at the Onalaska Community Presbyterian Church on Tuesday afternoon.
Cassie Rittenhouse, an artist from Chehalis, works on a mural of a tree in the dining area at Onalaska Community Presbyterian Church on Tuesday afternoon in Onalaska.
If walls could talk, the Presbyterian Community Church of Onalaska would have stories that spanned the decades.
And if walls could listen, the church would hear a community congratulating it on its 100 years of existence.
This Sunday, the church and it’s congregation will be celebrating a century of service in Onalaska.
The centennial celebration will be subtle.
Pastor Bob Masciola said this weekend’s worship service will have a special theme based on faith and “passing on the baton.” There will be an ice cream social afterward.
As with the community itself, the church is no stranger to struggle or hardship, but despite the challenges facing the community at large, the congregation has continued on with faith as a guide.
“It’s a survivor, just like the town,” Masciola said.
Over the years, the church has steadily grown. Congregation members volunteer their time to maintain the facilities. While the original structure still stands, it was lifted and given a basement and had several small additions added on. According to church members, there’s a time capsule hidden somewhere in the building.
The interior is a blend of old and new with its climate control system, Onalaska’s only elevator and the retro burnt sienna pews.
At 52 years old, Masciola is coming into his third year as head of the church. Prior to Onalaska, he was in a small logging town in New York.
As society changes and social norms evolve, he hopes the church can be a safe haven for the faithful.
“Hopefully, like the church was during the Middle Ages… like a protectant,” he said. “The future looks uncertain, but the Gospel never changes.”
The 42-member congregation manages to offer several programs, including a preschool and space for Alcoholics Anonymous, which meets four nights a week.
It has also grown into a de facto community center, opening it doors for school and community events such as the Apple Harvest Festival.
According to the book, “Onalaska,” which chronicles the history of the four towns named Onalaska in the United States, in 1916, “It was eyebrow-raising that this new town could fund and build a large and fully-equipped church so easily and quickly.”
The book’s author, Vic Kucera, wrote that the church is thought to be the last church built by timberman and town patron William Carlisle.
Carlisle and his family donated a 10,000-square-foot lot, put $500 into the construction budget and agreed to have company carpenters do the majority of the work.
On Sept. 26, 1916, Carlisle himself mortared shut the cornerstone, and just 40 days later, on Nov. 5, 1916, the church was dedicated.
At 89 years old, Onalaska resident Darrell Dow has been a member of the church for more than his lifetime.
“I was going there before I was born. My mother attended,” he said. “I was away from the church for a while while I was in the service, but it’s always been my church.”
He and his wife Naomi were married 69 years ago by the church’s minister at her family’s home.
“That church is my life, it’s really important to me,” he said. “I’ve been sick and they’ve always stuck by me and they’ve prayed for me and I’ve come out of it. It’s a very important part of my life.”
