Upon finishing the Pine Valley Chapel in southern Utah, Ebenezer Bryce said, "If a flood should come, it would float and if a wind came strong enough to blow it over, it still would never crash to pieces."
It appears he was dead on.
The unique little building constructed in 1868 is today the oldest continuously used church existing in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with summer services held from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
Visitors can climb steep, narrow steps to peer into the attic to see rafters constructed to resemble an upside-down ship hull. (Until 1966, the only access to the attic was by ladder.)
They can look at the original door and woodwork made of pine but refinished to look like oak.
In the 1860s, Bryce, a shipbuilder by trade, agreed to build the church if he could do it his way, using shipbuilding techniques.
His signal to his workmen to hoist was a little shipbuilder's rhyme.
Under his supervision, huge granite boulders were placed at the corners of the foundation with limestone blocks along the four sides.
Only wooden pegs and square iron nails were used. The corners of the building were wrapped with strips of green rawhide so they would tighten as they dried.
The outside of the 2½-story building was covered with shiplap made of half-inch boards about six inches wide and fit over each other at the edge.
A small prayer room at the top of a narrow, winding staircase has one of the oldest original organs in the church.
The ground floor was divided into two rooms with two outside entrances.
The second and main floor was a multipurpose room that could serve as a chapel on Sunday and at other times be a stage. When the slat benches were pushed back, the room could be used for dances, parties and dinners.
The curved ceiling — suspended from a frame in the attic — perfectly matched the arch over the stage.
Originally the chapel was heated by a large, wood-burning stove.
The chapel was lighted by a pair of brass chandeliers with four kerosene lamps on each.
School was held in the building until 1919.
For more information, call 435-673-5181.
e-mail: haddoc@desnews.com