Looking at the Wellsville Tabernacle right now, visitors may see only an aging relic at the mercy of contractors, but a group of determined Cache Valley citizens see more.
Make no mistake. Members of the Wellsville Foundation have a mission. They have already saved the tabernacle from falling into unappreciative hands and they plan to do much more eventually. The front cover of their brochure reads: "Preserving the heritage of a community." Indeed the emotional attachment to the building extends far beyond the tattered walls.Many members have personal recollections of the building from childhood when they attended church there, some are descendants of those who painstakingly constructed the building 95 years ago and many others just care enough about history to get involved.
"It's not just a group of old people," jokes foundation member Ila Wright. "There's a lot of young members too."
This group of young and old have one very important thing in common: appreciation for the historic Wellsville Tabernacle.
"This city needs a civic center. That is the idea: to use it for city activities," says Wright.
For over 90 years, Cache Valley's oldest settlement has been home to the large Gothic-style tabernacle. Although it has been on the National Historic Register since 1973, only recently has any real action been taken to restore the building.
"There were as many as 50 tabernacles all together at one time," says historical architect Allen Roberts of Salt Lake City. "There are roughly 20 to 25 left, and most of them have either been renovated or restored."
"The Wellsville Tabernacle and the Smithfield Tabernacle (also in Cache Valley) are two of the most outstanding ones architecturally that have not been restored," says Roberts.
The history of the building reads with an eerie sense of what might have been - paralleling the timeline, and often eventual demise, of many other historic tabernacles.
Architect C.T. Barret's design was constructed by the volunteer efforts of Wellsville citizens at the turn of the century using rock and timber from the nearby Sardine Canyon. Construction began in 1902. LDS Church President Joseph F. Smith dedicated the building in June 1908.
The tabernacle has endured three remodelings: one in 1928, another in the late 1930s "My brother used to string Christmas lights from the very top of that steeple all the way down. One winter the wind kept blowing the insulation off the wires and they would bang against the wooden shingles. That caused the fire," he recalls.
The tabernacle went without a tower for several years until the copper tower (still in place today) was added.
In the 1950s other changes were made. The floor in the basement was raised, petitions were added, the spiraling front staircase was taken out and a new kitchen replaced the old. In 1956 the building was painted white in an effort to save the crumbling exterior brick.
Gradually the building has changed hands multiple times. Until the late '70s it served as an LDS Church meetinghouse/stake house. A drawn-out debate between those who wanted to renovate the deteriorating tabernacle and those who wanted a new stake center erupted in 1978.
The media, as well as concerned citizens on both sides, tried to influence church leaders. Eventually they opted to build a new facility and sold the tabernacle to the city for $65,000 - ironically the exact amount that had been needed to construct the building 80 years before.
The tabernacle served as a meeting place for the local Daughters of the Utah Pioneers and the Lions Club, as offices for Wellsville City and various other functions until 1994.
In fact, if a building can have a turning point, 1994 was it for the Wellsville Tabernacle. Wellsville City lacked the funds for repairs and officials were seriously considering complete demolition of the tabernacle and construction of new city offices on the same site to suit their needs. Instead, the citizens of the foundation came together just in time to snatch the building from the chopping block.
After another very public, yearlong debate the city sold the tabernacle to the foundation for $100 and a small yearly fee ($20) for five years. The city moved its offices across the street.
Since then, members of the foundation have been working diligently to drum up support for the preservation of the building.
Foundation members say they have had relatively little support from the current Wellsville community, but an aggressive letter-writing campaign to those who grew up in the town and other prospective donors has been very successful.
"George Eccles gave us the money for the roof. Miriam Parkinson went down and sat across from him and looked him right in the eye and they came through with it," recalls Wright.
That straightforward style of foundation members has led to other grants as well. Some were earned by writing to national organizations. And even the original owner, the LDS Church, which has found it cannot save all of its historic buildings, has been supportive of the project.
"They're coming forth now and trying to save them," says Wright. "And this being the year it is (the sesquicentennial) they're more interested."
With these small victories to motivate them and a recent honor bestowed on the building by the Smithsonian Institute, members of the foundation are optimistic.
The Wellsville Tabernacle has been selected as part of a nationwide Smithsonian exhibit titled "Barn Again," which will open next spring.
The foundation actually had little to do with the selection.
"They called us," muses Dave Bell, president of the foundation.
According to Brian Crockett, national project director for the States Humanities Council, the purpose of the project is to encourage farmers to maintain historic barns rather than tearing them down. Crockett went shopping for host sites and visited Wellsville.
"I went to downtown Wellsville and decided if there is a place for the exhibit it's got to be here in this tabernacle," says Crockett. "The point of `Barn Again' is preserving buildings that matter. It just seemed fitting that the good folks in Wellsville should be rewarded for their efforts."
The exhibit will tour eight states, and Wellsville will be the opening site for its time in Utah next spring. Crockett says citizens can expect workshops on restoration, folk-life demonstrations, art history lectures and contests as part of the exhibit activities.
Currently, the Wellsville foundation meets once every two weeks and holds occasional meetings with preservation experts from the Utah Historical Society.
"Structurally the building could be saved and architecturally the building could be saved, but it takes money," Roberts points out. "The building itself was designed by architects and engineers. It was well built."
In fact, the Wellsville Tabernacle survived an earthquake that destroyed another nearby tabernacle. Roberts says the visible cracks in the building that worry many citizens are not a concern in terms of safety.
"In Europe all the buildings have earthquake cracks and they've been that way for thousands of years. It is possible to seismically upgrade buildings. We've done it before."
His firm, Cooper/Roberts Architects, is currently working on the Logan Tabernacle project. He says the only difference between the two projects is available funding.
The Wellsville foundation tries to setrealistic goals.
"Eventually complete restoration may be possible," says Bell. "It's an extensive thing and if someday we can do it we will."
For now they will just be happy to bring restrooms up to code, replace carpeting, finish the roofing and complete a new coat of interior paint. As soon as these alterations are in place they plan to hold more benefit concerts, fund raisers and tours. They will also be gearing up for the Smithsonian exhibit.
"We're just taking it one step at a time," says Wright. And for now that seems to be just the right method for saving this historic building and the memories and heritage contained therein.
If you would like to help, send inquiries to The Wellsville Foundation, P.O. Box 166, Wellsville, UT 84339, or for more information call 1-801-245-3153.