Editor’s note: Over a period of 12 years beginning in 1983, local historian Ken Munford wrote 561 columns for the Gazette-Times. As part of the city’s 150th anniversary, the newspaper will publish a selection of these columns each Saturday. This one was originally printed on Sept. 18, 1989.

In the summer of 1889, the Corvallis Gazette reported that a new type of church was being built by the Episcopalians at Seventh and Jefferson streets.

On July 12, the newspaper reported the building “will be after the style of an old English cathedral and will look very mystic.”

On Aug. 12, the paper reported the building “is now nearing completion. Its architecture is something after the style of a cathedral of olden times.”

Other churches around town were square or oblong assembly rooms decorated on the outside. Some had bell towers over the front entrance. The new Presbyterian spire at Fourth and Jefferson dominated the skyline in the manner of a New England church.

J.T. Pickett’s 1885 drawings in Fagan’s “History of Benton County” show crosses over the front door and along the roof line of St. Mary’s Catholic Church and small square belfries on the box-like Methodist and Evangelical churches. The Southern Methodists used the chapel of Corvallis College. The Episcopalians had been using a classroom in what had been the Chapel School for Girls in Central Park.

Wallis Nash, lay leader of the Episcopal congregation, undoubtedly influenced the design of the new building. He was a skillful artist and well-acquainted with the European cathedrals and their architecture and traditions.

The new church faced west in the cathedral tradition and had a circular window above the arched entry way. Its cruciform floor plan had a nave leading through the transept to choir, pulpit and altar. The soaring vault, supported above by hand-hewn trusses, was an attempt to attain lightness, delicacy and inspiring height. Like many a cathedral, the bell tower rose above the transept.

Arched windows provided light for the interior — three on either side of the nave, one at either end of the transcept, and three joined together behind the altar. In later remodeling the west face of the building was moved outward and two more arched windows were added beside the entryway. Additions at the other end provided space that would be called the apse in a cathedral.

The baptismal font stood in the south transcept. It was a gift of the Rev. and Mrs. J.Y. Nicholson of Sommerset, England, a memorial to their son, who had died in Corvallis in 1881. Mrs. Nicholson sent photographs and funds for a stonemason named Ira Miller to carve a font like the one in Sommerset in which, it was said, King Alfred the Great had been baptized in A.D. 870.

The new-to-Corvallis type building was consecrated as the Church of the Good Samaritan on Sept. 8, 1889. After 72 years of service it was secularized on Aug. 27, 1961. The Episcopalians had sold the property and had laid the cornerstone for a new church at Northwest 35th Street and Harrison Boulevard. On sturdy foundation beams, the original building was in good repair or repairable. It was moved to Madison Avenue facing Central Park, where it became the home of the Corvallis Arts Center, later called ArtCentric. (The organization now is changing its name to The Arts Center of Corvallis.)

Visitors to the Arts Center have an opportunity to see not only the works of a great variety of modern artists but also a century-old example of ecclesiastical architecture. By close observation one can detect which windows and lumber are from the original building and which were added later.

Clips in Time

Editor’s note: Morris and Lynn Walker are working to make “150 Years in the Heart of the Valley,” a documentary film about Corvallis’ first 150 years. In this feature, which will appear on Saturdays in the Gazette-Times, they’ll share tidbits around Corvallis that they’ve uncovered during their work. You can contact the Walkers at heartofthevalley@yahoo.com or by calling 609-0107.

Although it’s been in plain sight for 119 years, many people have not noticed the words “THE FLIGHT OF TIME” on the clock tower of the courthouse. Just take a walk around the Benton County Courthouse, and you will see the bold relief letters above the faces of the clocks. One word above each clock face: On the front of the tower is THE, on the north side is the word FLIGHT, on the back, it says OF and on the south side, TIME. No one seems to know why this phrase appears in this unique fashion or who came up with the idea. Do you?

The courthouse cornerstone was laid on July 4, 1887, and a great Independence Day party followed. Benton Hall, the centerpiece of the lower Oregon State University campus, had its cornerstone put in place only a month later. These classic buildings are two of the most recognizable, historic structures in Benton County.