Steven Caskey, the pastor at Grace United Methodist Church, stands outside the building on D Street in Vader on Tuesday afternoon.
Every Sunday before service, Rev. Steven Caskey climbs through the roof of his office, crawls across rafters and scales the inside of the Grace United Methodist Church in Vader to ring the large cast iron bell inside.
Caskey has been serving at the historic church for 28 of its 125 years of existence. He has been a witness to change during that time.
“It’s just a neat old church,” he said.
He said a group of three men have been restoring the church over the past few years, including refurbishing the wooden floors, touching up the annex in the back, restoring the tower and installing new stained glass windows, among other improvements.
It provided a timely update for the church, a ministry that started in 1891 as Grace Evangelical Mission, with the actual structure being built in 1902. At the time, it was the only church in town.
It later became a United Methodist church in 1968.
Caskey remembers his first Sunday at the church when he preached to a congregation of seven elderly women. They approached him afterwards and told him they wanted to see the church continue.
And it has, though its weekly ranks are small with around 15 members, Caskey said the church has a large number of people from all across the region, many of whom donate to the church and return once a year for an annual celebration.
“We’ve got this extended family that cares about it,” he said.
This year, for their 125th anniversary, they are forgoing the usual celebration, and instead doing a big anniversary celebration on Oct. 9 which includes a service at 12:30 p.m. and a potluck following.
The church itself is painted white, with wood everywhere in the interior. A small library room sits to the right of the entrance, with Caskey’s humble office on the other.
The wooden pews are all fairly modern, but one original pew remains, bearing the initials of two then-youngsters who carved them during service, and consequently ended up mowing the church’s lawn for years, Caskey said.
In the back, an expansive dining area and full kitchen provide a place for regular potlucks and gatherings.
The church’s heyday came in the late early 1800s and into the next century as The Washington Fire Clay Co. and the logging industry boomed, bringing in some 5,000 people. But in 1914, the clay company burned and wasn’t rebuilt.
Combined with stagnation in the logging industry, hundreds of families left the town, depleting the population. Later, in the Great Depression, many people burned down their homes to cash in on insurance money, according to previous articles in The Chronicle.
Caskey retired years ago but pastors the church for free. He says he’s not sure how much longer he’ll be able to keep it up.
“I’m hoping that our denomination keeps it here,” he said. “I’m working on some sort of exit strategy that actually works.”
Some sort of agreement with a Pe Ell church may be in the works, but Caskey is still working on it to keep the church active.
In the meantime, he’s looking forward to the Oct. 9 celebration, as well as various times in the year when the church, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, is opened to the public.
And through all the years, Caskey’s love for the church has only grown.
“I wish I could serve it for another 28 years,” he said.
The church is located at 618 D. St., Vader.
