Revelations ~ August 2022

This is a monthly column helping us to get to know our friends and members in a deeper way. We thank Monte High for taking the time to do these in-depth interviews for us.

For this month’s column I have decided to revisit the first article I wrote for the newsletter, back in March of 2016. The article was a little silly, as I tend to be. It was written from the perspective of the building, as though I was interviewing the building, as though the building could speak. Anywise, there are many new congregants who do not know the history of our wonderful UUCGV building. And even for those who’ve been around a while, I think it’s a good time to be reminded of how fortunate we are to have such a beautiful home.
Do you remember? Can you recall? The long journey – the Odyssey, the 40 years (and then some) wandering in the desert? All the people power poured into the renovation? How jubilant we were when we walked through the door at 536 Ouray to celebrate our first worship service?
I won’t write about the early years when our congregation met in people’s houses, or on the monument, or in the Mesa State Chapel, etc. Let us start this historic tour at the building we rented one lot over from the corner of 10th and Grand Avenue. We were renting a building that was previously a preschool, next door to an old church with a steeple that housed the Emily Griffith Opportunity School. Do you remember when our rent started to rise, when we began to realize how much cheaper a mortgage would be? When we formed a building search committee? When we all went out like worker ants searching for crumbs? Could the old Hobby lobby building on North Avenue possibly work? No. We were considering everything. You remember touring the church building on Glenwood Avenue? Too small. You remember touring the mortuary building? Too expensive. You remember touring the church on Orchard Mesa? They rejected our offer. (Thank goodness!)
Then, in 2011 we decided to share space with the First Congregational Church across from Grand Junction High School. I think our rent was less than 1/3 of what we had been paying. Do you remember all the work that went into moving? Getting rid of the (heavy) old carpet padded wooden church pews? Storing a bunch of stuff in the cellar of the Carr’s house. Remember the survey to decide the time of our Worship Service? I recall 4:30 PM being the median time selected. We seemed a small crowd in the long pews of that large sanctuary. Yet, during the 2+ years we spent scheduling our meetings and events after first checking the Congregationalist’s calendar, we formed a fondness for the kitchen that would carry over to the final blueprint of our new building.
Do you remember the first whisperings of the property at 536 Ouray Avenue? We had inside information from a Library Board member that it would soon be on the market.
Wow! What an amazing location – right across the street from the main library branch. But could we really make it work? From the outside the building looks small, yet as you enter the reality is much larger, and there is a full basement. The building would need a major renovation, yet the foundation is good, the structure is sound, the pillars are sturdy and the spine is very strong
(much like the people-gathering of the UUCGV).
The building at 536 Ouray Avenue was completed in 1977 and was home to the Mesa County Teachers Federal Credit Union. At some point it was taken over by the Western Rockies Federal Credit Union, and then sometime in the next century the Mesa County Library bought it to use for office space and book storage. Could we really make it work? Could we turn this building into a loving space that would become a home of our own?
Yes! If we tear down this wall, and that wall and that wall and that wall, and we put up this wall and this wall and this wall – we could build a beautiful place, an amazing wondrous wonderful space. We can take out that drive-in window on the wall and the driveway can become a patio with a flower garden; we can remove the conveyor belt that the library used to bring books from the basement, and fix the hole in the floor. We can remove the enormous, thick steel doors and make use of the space inside the vault, upstairs and down – the vault runs through the entire vertical length in the middle of the building, the walls are 2 ½ feet thick with reinforced concrete (the spine). We can build an altar with space for a choir, and we can replace practically the entire electrical system and put in an amazing audiovisual sound system.
But can we afford it? How can we possibly afford it? Thanks to a kind gentleman, who wished to remain anonymous, we were able to purchase the building – and set it up so that our mortgage wouldn’t kick in for a few years, which allowed us to complete most of the renovation.
“Imagine. Imagine all the people, living for today…” Imagine about 12 people (the building committee) sitting around the table. In the middle of the table and architects drawing. Twelve people with different ideas on the shape that our building should take. Going back-and-forth, moving walls, shifting shapes – should we put a kitchen in the basement? Do we need a foyer: how big should be? How many offices do we need? How many classrooms should we put in the basement, where will we put the lift so that we can be welcoming to all? On and on and… Consensus!
Imagine all the worker bees, buzzing around the hive. The demolition began. Concrete was broken up, walls were smashed away – dust flew, and wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of the rubble was carted away. And then we built it up. Some of the work had to be contracted out (much of the contract work was done by the company of one of our congregants) but most of the work was done by our own people. I’m not going to mention names because I cannot remember all of them and I’d surely leave some of them out, and also get many of the details wrong. Many devoted congregants poured their blood, sweat, and tears into the search process, getting a mortgage – and especially renovating the building. One member lost his mind and committed a whole year of his life, as what would amount to a full-time job. We were lucky to have members with a lot of knowledge, some who were project managers and architects, others who brought a lot of common sense and countless hours of labor.
Nelson Mandela said it always seems impossible until it is done. I’m not mentioning names –
yet you know who you are. Each of you, throw your fists above your head, and yell – yes, I did that! We owe you all a world of gratitude, including those who have moved on and those who are no longer with us. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
 
Life flows on... in endless song…