History Moment

Submitted by Peggy Taylor

Parkway UCC’s New Fellowship Hall, 1980

Carolyn Marshall and I have been going through “paper she has saved”, and we found a newspaper article and picture of the new fellowship hall dedicated June 18,1980.

It was located where our present kitchen/lobby is today, “designed to be as ecologically sound and economical as possible.”  It cost $37,000. That price also included re-roofing the whole building. Membership at that time was estimated to be 132 or so.

The minister, Paul Robinson, told the reporter that the project began as an idea for enlarging the sanctuary, turning it into a multipurpose room. Members felt that as so many things were going on in the building, there needed to be one place that would remain stable – the sanctuary.

Bricks from the original church were recycled. Members saved money by tearing down two walls and cleaning the brick for reuse. I remember work days when we chipped mortar off the bricks and used muriatic acid to clean them. After construction, members finished woodwork and did landscaping. A wood-burning stove was built by Rev. Ronnie Williams, a PUCC member and part-time pastor at Pfafftown UCC. It was installed in the new hall and was used for several years in an effort to avoid gas and electric usage.

“The church also is contemplating building a solar greenhouse on the front of the church to be used for supplementary heat for the sanctuary and to provide space for raising vegetables.”