Image provided by First Presbyterian Church of Elmwood.

ELMWOOD — When church members decided to build the First Presbyterian Church in Elmwood 118 years ago, they refused to borrow money to construct and furnish the two-story building.
According old historical records furnished by church members, the motto of those church members was “build only what can be paid for dedication.”

Although the faces of the church members have changed since 1893 when the First Presbyterian Church, 208 N. Lilac St., Elmwood, was constructed and furnished for $7,071, their motto hasn’t. The current church congregation decided not to take out a loan for the construction and furnishing of a new building that is being built directly next door to the current building.
“The congregation has voted to spend only what we have in the bank and not to get into debt,” said Mary Tarter, the building chairman for the new church building. “We have enough to build the structure, but not to completely outfit the structure. We are in the process of raising funds.”
Tarter did not want to give the amount it will cost the congregation to construction and furnish the new building.
The new church building will be “about 8,000 - 12,000 square feet bigger,” said Tarter.
To accommodate the elderly and handicapped, the new church building will not have steps.
“It will all be one level, so it will be handicap accessible,” said Tarter. “There will be no basement. No steps to climb.”
Parts of the current building, including some of its stained glass windows and an oak pump organ will be moved to the new building.
Nine of the 32 stained glass windows in the current building will be restored and moved to the new building, including a 7-foot-wide round window with scalloped edges. The round window will be displayed behind the communion table in the new building along with two tall companion windows.
Around 10 of the stained glass windows in the current building were sold for prices ranging from $150 to $500 to raise money for the new building.

First Presbyterian Church of Elmwood, circa 1924.

Installed in the current building in the mid-1950s, an oak pump organ will be moved to the new building without the wall of decorative metal pipes that project its sound. Because it would cost the congregation about $90,000 to move and restore the organ’s 750 pipes, church members decided to use speakers to produce sound from the organ in the new building.
Once the new building opens, the current building will be razed and the space will become a parking lot.
A lot of the church members “hate to see” the old church go, said 82-year old Dick Schrimp, who has been attending the church since he was 2 years old.
“For most people, they have a real feeling here,” said Schrimp. “They just hate to see it go. For me the church is not stained glass windows and all those things. To me the church is the people. I’ve got a lot of memories there and so on, but most of my memories involve the people that have been there over the years, and that’s the important thing.”
Church members broke ground on the construction of the new building during a ceremony on August 7, 2011. The new building is expected to open in the summer of 2012.