BLADENSBURG — The small but stately Bladensburg Presbyterian Church is closed now, its last service held on Sunday, July 16, 2005.
Inside the building, which was built in 1866 at 4000 McLarnan Road, remain a jumbled stack of pews, the vintage Rawlings piano and the old Baldwin organ. The colorful Gothic Revival stained glass windows remain intact, as does the high open bell tower with railing, slate roof, hardwood floors, hand-dressed and huge old stones that make up the foundation and the diamond-shaped windows on either side of the vestibule. The original tin-punched ceiling hides beneath a modern dropped ceiling.
The arched doorway in the vestibule is ornate, and on either side of the barn-style front door are two smaller doors that can be flung wide to let in a breeze on a hot summer Sunday morning. The bell tower and vestibule were added sometime after 1866.
The modern red carpet inside the sanctuary still looks relatively clean, but the pulpit and original oak pews are gone, as is the old bell and the window that was once inside the big arched opening above the interior front door.
When the tiny congregation of six elderly people made the decision to close their church and informed the Scioto Valley Presbytery of that decision, the presbytery offered the Millwood Presbyterian Church the building’s contents.
“They told them to take what they wanted,” said Edna Van Winkle, 79, of Bladensburg, who grew up in the church, “and they took the pulpit and the pews, which they could use. They didn’t want the bell, but said it should stay in Bladensburg.”
The 700-pound oxidized-bronze bell in its rusted wheel now sits, covered by a tarp, in the back of an old pickup truck belonging to Van Winkle’s son, Tom. The words on the bell read “Cast by G.L. Hanks, Cincinnati.”
“So I took the bell,” explained Van Winkle. “I hired a guy who rented a truck with a boom. They got it down from the outside. It needs sandblasting, and some of the local people want to help, so we’ll do most of the work that we can ourselves. Hopefully, the bell will end up back in the church yard, but we don’t know yet.”
The small manse (parsonage) beside the church was built in 1960 for pastors and their families. Sunday School classes were held in the basement. Duane and Vickie Dugan, then a newly married couple, rented the house and raised three sons there. They purchased the manse a few years ago.
“We wanted to buy it when it came up for sale because that’s where we set up housekeeping,” said Duane. He said the Sunday School classes continued, even when his family lived there, a stipulation of their agreement with the church.
“Our son Troy is now a pastor in Washington Court House,” said Dugan, “and he says, ‘That’s where I first started going to Sunday School.’”
After the church building closed, the Dugans purchased it too. They hope to rent it to a Christian congregation, although Bladensburg residents have also suggested it be turned into a community center. But the old building has never been updated with water or restrooms, although it is wired for electricity.
“I hate to see it just set there without somebody doing something with it,” said Dugan. “It’s part of Bladensburg. It’s the history of the town.”
The bell tower’s first level is accessed by climbing Dugan’s Fiberglas ladder and opening a trap door in the vestibule ceiling. The middle part of the bell tower is dark, dusty and quiet. A broken wooden ladder clings to one wall. To climb to the upper trap door to access the open top of the tower, visitors would have to climb the broken ladder, balance and walk across a high beam like acrobats, then pull themselves up onto a second wooden ladder and climb it. Unfortunately, the second ladder appeared to be attached only at its very top. Visitors decided photographs and video would have to do.
Several years ago, Van Winkle applied to the Ohio Historic Preservation Office in Columbus for National Register of Historic Places designation for the old church. But the office declined because of renovations made in 2000 that altered its historic significance: The addition of modern shingles on the outside of the bell tower, vinyl siding on the church and the dropped ceiling.
“I went there when I was a child,” said Van Winkle, whose maiden name is Coakley. “I grew up in the church. My husband’s family went too. I was probably 8 years old when I started going there. It was full of people then. They had ice cream socials back then too. It was a very active church, and we raised our kids in it.”
Asked about the congregation’s last days, Van Winkle sighed. “There weren’t very many of us, just six members. There were no young people and with two other churches in the community ... it was a difficult decision. First we rented the manse, then we sold it to have money to stay open longer. We made the decision together about a month before we closed, and we made plans for a special service on July 16, 2005. The Millwood church people came and the community came that day. My kids all came back for it.”
Van Winkle, who enjoys history and antiques, called attention to three beautiful oak chairs in her dining room, upholstered in elegant fabric. When the church closed, she asked if she could have the dark and grubby chairs with the torn upholstery that sat for years behind the pulpit. Some thought they should be thrown away, but Van Winkle paid to have them refinished and reupholstered, because they were part of her growing-up years.
And then she asked, “Did you see the arch above the inside door of the church, that’s empty, where a window used to be?”
She led visitors to her living room to see that very window hanging in front of the living room windows, casting warm, rosy light into the room through its antique gold, green and purple panes.
“It brings back so many memories,” Van Winkle said with a smile.
The 23rd installment in the Knox County On High series continues May 5 with a view from the North Bend Church of the Brethren near Danville.
