Segment II of Centennial History Manual
In the 75th anniversary volume, Mr. Milton B. Potter gives the following account of the building of the first two church edifices:
"I do not remember attending a religious meeting in a log building in Wauwatosa, yet I find that such meetings were held, not only in log school houses, but also in log dwelling houses, and that the church was organized in the log house of Deacon Richard Gilbert, Sr.
"The first meetings that I recollect attending were in the frame school house facing the common in the village of Wauwatosa. It was afterward used as the town hall, and torn down two or three years ago. Probably the first public use of the village school house was for a Sunday preaching service. The roof was on and the building was partly sided up and floor partly laid. A carpenter's bench was moved around and the legs dropped between the sleepers for a platform for the preacher and a table placed upon it for his desk and boards were used as seats for the audience. Meetings were held in school houses until October, 1853, when we gladly moved into our new church building.
"A meeting was called to be held in the Gilbert school house on May 5, 1852, due notice being given, at which they organized 'the Congregational Church and Society,' and voted to incorporate. At this meeting a communication was read asking the society to unite with the church in building a house of worship. According to the records it took nearly all summer to complete the organization and incorporation of the church and society. But meanwhile a committee had been appointed to select a suitable site for the church building. At a meeting of the board of trustees the present site was chosen. It was purchased of Mr. Charles Hart for $50.00. A subscription paper was immediately circulated to obtain subscriptions for the church building. Mr. J. A. Warren was appointed to superintend the work.
"The work of building the church was let to Martin & Rayne, for which they were paid $2,191.00. Mr. J. A. Warren made out a bill of timbers needed, getting the different members of the society to furnish them, for which they were given credit on their subscriptions. I remember going into the woods with my father and helping him load one of the timbers. I did the blocking up with scoring blocks, as he pried up the timber in order to get the wagon under it.
"The church was completed and dedicated on the 27th of October, 1853, Rev. Z. M. Humphry preaching the dedicatory sermon. We had a church building of which any new country might well be proud. The building was painted white and had a spire nearly one hundred feet high. Inside there were four rows of pews, one on each side and a double row up the middle. The platform was at the west end of the audience room with a purple pulpit, back of which were hung curtains. At the other end of the room was a gallery which extended across the width of the building and was built over the vestibule, extending into the audience room ten feet or more. In the southeast part of the gallery was the door leading to the belfry. In the center of the ceiling was a large circular centerpiece of plaster paris which was quite ornamental; it cost the society $33.00. It afterwards fell, but did no particular damage except to mar the ceiling. The cost of building the church and furnishings was $3,347.80. Thus you have the original church building. It was used in this condition until 1870, when the audience room was somewhat remodeled by cutting off that part of the gallery extending into the audience room back to the vestibule, and building a lecture room onto the west end of the church building. This room was entered by doors each side of the pulpit platform. The cost of this addition and repairs was $2,076.29.
"In the year 1884 the Rev. George Nelson, after he had resigned from the pastorate, circulated a subscription paper for subscriptions to build a parsonage. He said that he would like to do that for the society before he left Wauwatosa. The parsonage was built directly across the street from the church building on a lot given to the society by Mr. James Stickney. The cost of the parsonage was $2,200.00.
"In the spring of 1887 the trustees and-a few others were invited to meet at the home of Mr. W. E. Lewis to talk over the need of reseating and repairing the church building, Mrs. Lewis giving us an excellent dinner. As a result of this meeting, a meeting of the society was held on the 28th of February to take action on the reseating and repairing of the church building. At this meeting it was deemed advisable to repair and reseat the building. "The building was raised up and a good basement put under if. The audience room was enlarged by taking in the lecture room and the vestibule, and an entrance and vestibule added to the front of the building. The audience room was seated with red cushioned opera chairs, and a place for the pipe organ was built back of the pulpit. The cost of repairing and reseating the church building was about $8,000.00. Thus you have the church building as it is today." It was at the time of the 75th Anniversary celebration that plans for financing the present church materialized. The need had been felt for a number of years, and tentative plans for the new building had been drawn. We quote from a paper by Dr. Harry G. Morton --- also in the 75th Anniversary volume: "All of the members of the church and most of the citizens of the community) who at different times have met in the Sunday School rooms for services) or entertainment of various kinds incidental to church work) have been impressed with the lack of room) and the deplorable condition of the building. The auditorium proper, while not presenting the many objections found in the other departments, at many times is too limited in seating capacity for various meetings of the congregation. At different times in the past few years a new church has been discussed, but until Mr. Davies became our pastor, no concerted effort was made to bring such a thing about. He saw the urgent need, and set about in a systematic way to see if it could not be accomplished. After a general preliminary meeting of the congregation, a committee was appointed to discuss the problem pro and con, with the result that recommendations were made to the church society, embodying what the committee thought would be desirable in a new building, with a sketch of the same, and, while at this time final plans for the building have not been worked out, the following description will give you some idea of what the committee suggested.
"The building would be of the Colonial type of architecture, of brick, with imposing portico in front, the entrance to be approached by wide steps extending the full width of this elevation. The portico would open into a roomy vestibule, from which enclosed stairways lead to a balcony. From the vestibule there would be an entrance through three doorways into the auditorium, which would be somewhat longer and wider than the present one and would furnish ample seating capacity. The pulpit and organ loft would be conventional, with the addition of a study for the pastor and also a choir room. Back of the auditorium and reached by an entrance from the auditorium as well as a main outside door, would be the Sunday School departments, complete in every detail, and above this a gymnasium to be used also as a dining room, with a modern kitchen attached. There would be a ladies' parlor on this floor and other rooms to be assigned later. In the basement would be a room for bowling alleys, beside the regular heating and ventilating apparatus.
The, above quotation is most interesting when compared with the description of the building in the dedication program just four years later. We think it worthwhile to quote this in full:
"The building as a whole is of Colonial style, erected on the 132 by 185 ft. lot, on which the original church was built in 1853. The auditorium is 50 by 90 ft., including the portico, and the parish house is 75 by 110 ft. The property as a whole represents an investment of about $100,000. The setting is beautiful, with a large grass court, 66 by 78 ft., in the southeast angle of the building. The rectangular auditorium with five arched windows, with plain small paned glass, on either side, the massive portico with its four Doric columns, and the Christopher Wren spire, a replica of the one at Williamstown, Mass., are the elements typical of the traditional American Colonial church. The spire is 119 feet high and contains, the original bell, cast in 1855.
"The auditorium has 380 brown mahogany finished chairs on the main floor and 133 in the balcony. But with the use of extra chairs 600 can be seated. The floor is of maple, curved sufficiently to enable all to see the speaker easily. The aisles, and the spaces in front and the rear are covered with blue carpet, as is also the pulpit platform. The decoration is in light tan, with a darker dado, the birch woodwork being painted in ivory white. The lighting is by three 42-inch bowls containing X-Ray indirect lamps, with smaller bowls in and under the balcony. The organ is the 18 stop, 1009 pipe Hinners instrument used in the old church. The organ loft will accommodate a chorus of forty. The vestibule has a tile floor and is entered by three double doors from the portico. A winding stairway at either end leads up to the balcony and two double doors open to the main auditorium aisles.
"The main floor of the parish house has three cloak rooms, one for men, one for women and a double one for smaller children; the church school rooms for the Beginners' and Primary Department, separated by doors; the Intermediate Department with five radial classrooms and large free space; the Junior Department with six radial classrooms and moderate sized free space; and the Church School office. Each department has several roomy closets.
"The second floor of the parish house has the gymnasium, also used for dining room, with balcony at the south end and two capacious store rooms opening on the east side for chairs and tables or gymnasium apparatus, as the case may be. A knock-down stage, 22 by 18 ft., can be set up at the north end for entertainments. To the south of the gymnasium, is the kitchen, fully equipped with a twelve-burner, Canopied gas range, a steam table, percolator, four sinks, cooking-rack, counters, cupboards and drawers. East of the kitchen is the spacious parlor, in ivory finished birch with mahogany finished doors, with fire-place and colonial furniture, with a cloak-room on the north side. The minister's study is in the angle formed by the auditorium and parish house and is completely furnished with desk, filing cabinet, large table, plain chairs and rocker, costumer and book-cases in mahogany.
"The third floor has three shower baths, a locker-room, a fire-proof moving picture booth, a club-room and storage attic.
"At the southwest corner of the parish house is a service stairway for the delivery of supplies to the kitchen. It also makes possible three fire-exits.
"The excavation under the auditorium is shallow; but under the parish house it is deep and has a concrete floor, being so arranged that bowling and other recreational equipment can be installed when funds permit.
"The church is heated by a low pressure vapor vacuum system. Indirect radiators heat the air coming through the ventilating intake. The electric lighting system is complete and adequate, including an illuminated bulletin-board and a light in the spire octagon." Mr. E. 0. Kuenzli, a member of our church, was the architect. On July 17, 1919, bids on the new church were opened, and by the first of August, work on the new edifice had been started. At this time, $54,000 of the building fund had been pledged, of which $17,000 had been paid. The church was completed at an over-all cost of $94,918.51. This total cost included $1,090 for decorating; $210 for lawn and $9,951.33 to cover contractors' losses. The total cost of new furnishings was $11,984.51. Including the value of the lot $5,000, old opera chairs, piano, etc. $1,855, and organ $4,500, this makes a grand total of $118,258.04. We think future generations may be interested in an itemized list of furnishing items with costs:
Auditorium chairs .................................. $ 4,559.40
Pulpit furniture ............................................. 495.50
Pulpit Bible .................................................... 27.00
Linoleum ...................................................... 617.00
Auditorium carpet ........................................ 687.89
Installation pipe organ .................................. 325.00
Parlor furniture .......................................... 1,000.00
Study furniture and equipment ....................... 755.00
Kitchen range ............................................... 150.00
Steam table .................................................. 153.00
Coffee urn ...................................................... 75.00
Silver, kitchen utensils ................................... 211.72
China, crockery, glass .................................. 385.00
Table cloths and padding ................................. 87.66
Ten dining room tables .................................... 95.47
Stools ............................................................... 8.10
Music Cabinet ................................................. 40.00
Two pianos ................................................... 145.00
Fire extinguishers ........................................... 135.00
Stage, including curtains ................................. 254.00
Church school equipment ............................... 726.00
Miscellaneous ................................................ 273.00
Total ....................................................... $11,984.51
Through Mr. E. L. Walker, treasurer of the finance committee, a grant of
$5,000 and a loan of $3,000 were obtained from the Congregational Church Building Society of New York.
There was a debt of $35,000 at the time of dedication. In the Annual financial report five years later, on January 6, 1926, we read that
the church's obligations consisted of outstanding bonds, $24,150.00 and notes held
by the First Wisconsin National Bank to the amount of $7,000. A mortgage had
been taken on the parsonage to the amount of $2,500 in the interim, and we had a $5,000 obligation to the
Congregational Church Building Society, totaling a total of $38,650. There were unsold bonds in the treasury to the amount of $5,850.
Mr. S. L. Wheeler, retiring chairman of the Board of Trustees, reported at the Annual
Meeting January 16, 1929, that "the floating debt had been entirely paid off, also
the mortgage on the parsonage and several thousand on bonded indebtedness."
At ,the Annual Meeting in 1935, Mr. L. S. Brodd introduced a plan to form "The Century Club," the purpose being to retire the debt of the church by the 100th Anniversary in 1942.
By 1938, the debt had been reduced to $20,000. Mr. E. J. Potter, reintroduced the subject of The Century
Club and its purpose, explaining that the project had not been pursued because of the depression.
He suggested however, that in spite of the continued dark financial picture, some definite plan be
reconsidered pursuant to liquidating the debt by 1942. On June 9, 1937, a special
meeting of the congregation was held in the church parlors. The following resolution
was passed: "Resolved that the First Congregational Church authorize the Board of Trustees to refinance the present bonded indebtedness by
borrowing $21,000 from the Wauwatosa State Bank, to be secured by a first mortgage loan on the church
building, the loan to be for a term of five years with interest at the rate of 4
1/2 % per annum, payable monthly or in monthly balances with refunded payments,
including interest, at the rate of $1,800 per year. At the same time, all outstanding
bonds, issued by the church in 1920 and maturing February 1, 1942, were recalled.
At the annual meeting of May 13, 1942, Mr. William J. Grede, chairman of the debt retirement
committee, reported that the entire remaining mortgage indebtedness of $13,800 had been lifted and the mortgage burned.