Year historic building in Arkona will be receiving major upgrades this winter, changes that will make it more accessible.
The community’s 110-year-old Arkona Baptist Church will have a lift installed over the coming months, with the project set to be completed by January.
Along with the new lift, which will provide access to the church’s main hall and basement, Pastor Rob Spicer and project manager Brent Lancaster said the facility will also be installing an accessible washroom in the basement as well as a new parking lot on the east side of the property.
While improvements in accessibility at the church were required to implemented by 2025 thanks to the provincial government’s Ontario Accessibility Plan, the idea to help make the building more user-friendly had been percolating for years, Spicer said.
“This wasn’t done just because of a mandate from the government – we finally held the vote to do this in February and one of our older members, who plays the piano, said ‘Hallelujah, it’s only been 17 years since we started talking about this’,” he said, with a laugh.
“So even 10 years before I arrived here, church members were already talking about making this place more accessible, because they recognized that there were people who just couldn’t do the front stairs, for instance. There were a number of issues that everyone recognized needed to be fixed.”
Major renovations had already taken place prior to this new project, Lancaster said. In 2019, the church replaced its wooden pews with moveable seating. And the church’s carpet was replaced with new flooring.
“A few years ago we had wooden pews, but we replaced them chairs … which can be reconfigured and moved around, it allows us to have a multi-use space,” he said.
“And it was an accessibility issue as well – the pews were much tighter to get into, so if you had a walker it was really difficult. And down between the pews there was carpet – my father had Parkinson’s, so I know how hard it is to deal with carpet even with a walker. So we got rid of the pews, installed a new floor and once we get the lift in here, people can sit where they want, do what they want to do much easier and go where they want to go.”
The lift is being installed on the east side of the church, Lancaster said. And if all goes well, it should be completed by January.
“Framing is supposed to start next week for the shaft. Then they’ll have to brick it and make it weather-proof, so that will be done in the beginning of December. And they won’t break through the building until it’s water-tight … once the shaft is done, the company that’s making the lift for us will come out and do a final measurement … and it’s about six weeks after that when they get the lift here and install it for us.”
The Arkona Baptist Church has a rich history in the community, Spicer said, and he hopes the new changes can help draw people back into the building.
Established in 1840, the church first held services inside residents’ homes until a log cabin structure was built to house the congregation.
“There were two families – the Eastman family and the Utter family – that were key to starting up the church, they were founding families for Arkona as a community too. At that time they had itinerant preachers who would go from town to town,” he said. “It was a fairly small congregation at the time, there were probably 20 or 30 people when it started up.”
In 1858, to accommodate a larger congregation, a new facility was built located adjacent to the church’s current location on Church Street. That house of worship was used for 54 years, until size once again became an issue, Spicer said, necessitating the construction of the current Arkona Baptist Church, which was opened in 1912.
Arkona has always had a strong faith community, Spicer said, and the newly renovated church will help revitalize both the congregation and the community as a whole.
“One of the ways we can serve the community best is make it easier to get into and usable not only by church members but by other members of the community.”
So far, the church has raised roughly 80 percent of the money to cover the project’s $200,000 cost.
“We have been fundraising and we’ve had a few wonderful donors,” Spicer said.
He said the church will hold more fundraisers over the coming months, while also holding a ribbon cutting/open house once the lift is installed.
For more information, visit the Arkona Baptist Church Facebook page or YouTube channel.
Donations can be made by e-transfer to [email protected] or by check to Doris Atchison, 7294 Arkona Rd., Arkona, ON, N0M 1B0.