Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 7, 1994 TAG: 9401070173
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But there is still plenty of evidence that this was once home to a thriving congregation.
A Bible is on the pulpit, a register of attendance and song selections hangs on the wall, and hymnals are scattered on the black walnut pews.
Tour guide Rupert Cutler performs a little Bach on the old, slightly-out-of-tune B. Schaninger piano that sits near the door.
Though it's obvious the roof has been leaking through the ceiling onto the yellow pine floors, the building is in pretty good shape.
Cutler hopes it won't take long to get the money to make sure no more damage occurs and the historic Mountain Union Church can be restored to its original glory.
But that won't happen here, at Virginia 630 and 779 in southern Botetourt County, where this building has stood since at least 1860.
The church will be disassembled, reassembled and restored at Explore Park, where the building will be part of a simulated 19th-century Blue Ridge community that will include a restored one-room school, a pastor's home, a farm house and a barn. They hope to have the church project completed this spring.
Cutler, director of Explore, said the church was donated to Explore about five years ago by the trustees of Fincastle Presbyterian Church, which owned the building.
The church represents not only an architectural artifact, but also an old rural tradition: the "union" church, one that was used by more than one denomination.
There are still some active union churches around, but they're a rarity.
This particular union church dates to 1808, when George Etslor - whose descendants now spell their name Etzler - "for the love [of] preaching the Gospel and the education of youth" donated one acre "for the use of a schoolhouse and meeting house for every denomination of Christians."
The Etslors were German Lutherans. Some other prominent families in the Haymaker community, such as the McDonalds, were Scottish Presbyterians. Those two denominations shared the building through the 19th century, though Presbyterians came to dominate in terms of numbers, while Lutherans declined.
By 1860, Presbyterians had assumed responsibility for the building and the adjacent cemetery, but the structure remained open to other denominations willing to help with maintenance.
By that time, however, some other denominations - Baptists, Methodists and Brethren - were already forming their own congregations with their own meeting places.
Venie Dalton and her husband, Jessie, live across Virginia 779 from Mountain Union Church, where Venie was a member for almost 80 years. The final services were held about six years ago, she said, after the elderly congregation had "dwindled down" to just a handful of members.
Dalton now attends a nearby Baptist church, but remembers when Mountain Union's pews would be packed on Sundays. Eventually, attendance declined so that there wasn't a preaching service, though Dalton and others continued to hold Sunday school classes.
Originally, there were two wood stoves, one on each side of the 30-by 33-foot one-room church, Dalton said. Volunteers provided firewood. During her lifetime, a big oil furnace replaced the stoves, and electric lights replaced the original oil lamps.
The building was used for weddings, funerals and other events, in addition to church services. The cemetery provided the final resting place for many of the area's residents.
"I've got a son buried up there. My father and a sister or two are buried up there, too," Dalton said.
It will be hard to part with the landmark that has been a prominent daily fixture for all of her 84 years, she said.
"I hate to see it go. But, I hate to see it deteriorating," Dalton said.
"I'm glad [Explore] is going to take care of it."
Lemon, a member of Roanoke's Second Presbyterian Church, and Horace Hood, a member of Raleigh Court Presbyterian, have been promoting a campaign among area Presbyterians to fund the $75,000 relocation and restoration of Mountain Union Church.
Tax-deductible donations - earmarked for the Mountain Union Church project - may be sent to the River Foundation, P.O. Box 457, Vinton 24179. The names of those who give $1,000 or more will be engraved on a bronze plaque at the entrance of the restored church.
by CNB