By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com

There are holes in the siding of the Little Log Church and Museum in downtown Yachats. There is no foundation under the church. And there is dry rot throughout the structure.

And, it could cost $300,000 or more to repair or replace.

Is it worth it?

That’s the question facing the city of Yachats, the museum’s board – and ultimately the community.

So far the answer is yes.

On Thursday, the museum’s board unanimously agreed with an idea the city has been floating — tear down the deteriorating 850-square-foot church and replace it with an exact replica. Other than to get matching siding, the 480-square-foot museum would not be touched.

“History will survive and now we should try to preserve it and move forward,” said board member Leon Sterner.

City Manager Shannon Beaucaire, facilities manager Heather Hoen and Parks and Commons Commission chair John Purcell met with the museum board Thursday to outline the condition of the 89-year-old church building and offer possible solutions. Those options were to do nothing and let the church rot, to renovate, or to demolish the building and build a replica.

“A replica of the church is the safest, the best structurally and the most cost effective,” Hoen told the board. “It is the most logical solution.”

But city officials and museum board members also acknowledged that the old church carries sentimental and historic value.

The city, which took ownership of the building in 1986, has paid an engineer and a contractor to look at problems. Two years ago the museum board hired a historic preservation architect to do the same.

The city is trying to combine those reports into a document to seek bids this summer for design and construction. But first it wanted a vote from the museum board – repair or replicate.

“It’s a 95-year-old building,” Hoen told YachatsNews.com. “Bringing it up to code is going to be very, very expensive. It’s not a paint and caulk job.”

 

Previous problems

It’s not a new issue with the property.

In 1992 Lincoln County ordered the church closed because it was unsafe. It took two years for volunteers to fix the problems, reinforcing part of the wood foundation, replacing some log siding and re-doing the interior.

A year ago the city approached the museum board with the same three options and the board voted in favor of the partial restoration. But since then the city’s two studies indicated increasingly serious problems with the church, including:

• Much of the church’s log siding is rotten, especially on south- and east-facing sides.
• Temporary plywood sheathing covering some logs or walls was not caulked or sealed, letting water seep into the wall. Some log siding was rotten completely through to interior sheetrock.
• Dry rot in many walls and rotten exterior window trim.
• The church has a deteriorating post-and-beam foundation that should be replaced; the museum has an adequate concrete foundation.

Using its visitor amenities fund, the city put $150,000 in its 2018-19 capital improvement budget for church restoration work. That money has not been spent. Beaucaire told the museum board Thursday that the plan – subject to Budget Committee and City Council approval — is to roll that money over to the 2019-20 budget and schedule another $150,000 for 2020-21.

“It was important to us to have it in the budget for this fiscal year,” Beaucaire said.

The problem with a seemingly simpler restoration, Hoen told the board Thursday, is that once they do $25,000 worth of work the entire building – bathrooms, fire suppression, foundation — needs to be brought up to current codes “and the costs rise exponentially at that point.”

While the property belongs to the city, the museum’s day-to-day operations is under the direction of a seven-member board. It has a budget of about $10,000 a year, also funded by the city’s lodging tax on tourists.

Before the building’s problems resurfaced, the museum board and city didn’t communicate much. Until recently “no one is quite sure what is going on,” museum board chair Karl Christianson told YachatsNews.com this month.

That has improved with meetings with Hoen, Beaucaire and Purcell.

The Parks and Commons Commission has been told it is responsible for overseeing the property. But museum board members don’t attend monthly commission meetings and so far have not proposed a budget for 2019-20 as other city-supported groups have started doing.

The board usually raises $1,000 a year through donations, a cash jar used for voluntary admissions and sales of a small history booklet. There is a nonprofit charitable group called Friends of the Little Log Church, but it has no endowment for major projects.

Christianson recognizes the board and museum supporters would have to step up that effort – and apply for grants – as work gets under way.

Thursday’s discussion and decision

City and commission officials attended Thursday’s museum board meeting to ensure more direct communication and that everyone understands each other.

“I want to make sure the museum board is comfortable with tearing down this beloved building, that the city is comfortable spending $300,000 to $400,000 and if the community feels that way as well,” Purcell told the Parks and Commons Commission last month.

Hoen told the museum board Thursday that a lot of work still needs to be done to decide how to proceed with constructing a church replica. Can the Douglas fir floor be saved? How about windows? Siding could be weather-resistant material that comes in the shape of half logs, she said.

Purcell, who worked as a construction manager, said the many details should be put in the bid package so the city, the board and the contractor know precisely what’s going to happen.

“You have the church here already so you know exactly what you want,” he said.

Board members agreed that the church had been remodeled too many times to call it original. That also disqualifies it from being nominated for historic designations.

“This is the wrong kind of building to have here. Log buildings are too vulnerable to coastal weather,” Sterner said. “The more we talk about it and the more we study it, it (a replica) seems the logical route.”

Board members said that while taking down the old church saddened them, if enough material could be salvaged and the new building captures the “spirit and essence” of the building then a replica would be best for the community.

“We’ve already done a partial replica,” board member Mary Crook said of the remodeled church. “A full replica seems to be the most efficient and cost-effective way to go.”

No matter how much money the city puts into the project, everyone Thursday recognized the need to seek historic preservation grants and fund raise in the community. The museum board and city officials also stressed keeping residents informed of a project that could take two years.

“We will have community input all along the way,” Hoen said. “It’s very important to hear the community’s opinions and walk people through the process.”

 

History of the Little Log Church & Museum

 

       Compiled from “The Little Log Church By The Sea, Ruth Harrison

• May 1927: The Rev. Rolla J. Phelps was assigned by the Oregon Conference of the Evangelical Church to the Bay View Mission, serving Waldport and Yachats. He preached in an old school house in “upper Yachats.”
• Late 1929: Phelps buys lot for $200 and starts work on Little Log Church.
• Aug. 24, 1930: Church completed and dedicated. A manse, or small one-room cabin for the minister and his family is soon added to the south side of the church.
• 1950: Little Log Church changed denominations to Presbyterian; manse converted into three Sunday School rooms.
• 1968: Congregation outgrows Little Log Church so moves services to nearby Yachats Ladies’ Club.
• 1970: Church members build new Presbyterian church on West Seventh Street and sell Little Log Church and property to the Lincoln County Historical Society, with the stipulation it be kept as a museum.
• 1976: The deteriorated manse is torn down and replaced by museum addition.
• 1986: Lincoln County Historical Society deeds ownership to the city of Yachats.
• 1992: The county deems the deteriorating building unsafe and museum closes. Debate ensues over whether to raze or rebuild.
• 1992-94: Volunteers repair and rebuild some sides and parts of the foundation.