Oysterville Church and Steeple
On page A8 of last week’s Observer was an article headlined “Sunday Music Vespers features Peninsula Guitar Trio.” Above it was a picture of the Oysterville Church’s steeple with a caption that started like this: “Oysterville Church is one of the most photographed buildings in Southwest Washington and…” That came as no surprise to any of us who live nearby. According to the Visitor’s Register in the Church, more than 10,00 people visit each year — and most of them take a picture or two.
Oysterville Church 1952
But that wasn’t always the case. When I was a kid, the church had long since been abandoned by the Baptist Association. We were just too small and too remote to support a preacher. And so, my grandfather, H.A. Espy, became the caretaker — a sort of sexton for the church. By then, he was old and infirm. He couldn’t do much more than patch the roof now and then and board up the steeple and a window or two where they were leaking — never mind painting it or keeping it open for visitors. It wasn’t much photographed in those days.
When Oysterville became a National Historic District in 1976, the Espy Family prevailed upon the Baptists to divest their interest in the church and return it to the Espy Family. (In 1892 R.H. Espy had donated the property and paid $1500 for the building of the church as a gift to the American Baptist Church Association with the provision that it be returned to the his family should it cease being used by them. (No regular Baptist services were held after the 1930s.) Once the “return” was accomplished, The Espys donated the church to the Oysterville Restoration Foundation which took on the responsibility for its upkeep and maintenance.
Sketch by Noel Thomas from our garden c. 2018
And so… it has become a visual (and acoustical) treasure — one of the most photographed buildings in the region, as the paper said. Or as our 1980s neighbor “Old Bob Meadows” used to point out about the many people who set up their easels nearby to paint its likeness — “There’s another one of them arty guys over at the church! Ain’t that something!” Indeed it was and continues to be to this day!
Seeing the “Church Open” sign from my dining room window once more makes me feel that all’s right with the world again — at least with this little corner of it. In the vestibule, though, on each of the inner doors — one leading to the sanctuary and the other to the room we’ve always called “The Sunday School Room” — are signs asking visitors who enter to please wear masks. Perhaps instructions/suggestions will change once we get Governor Inslee’s promised July 1st Directives.
As for scheduled events — the first to take place since sheltering began in March 2020 was a wedding last Saturday. And what a wedding it was! All the men arrived in kilts and the women in ankle-length pleated skirts or other authentic-looking regalia and, from what I could see, all in the same tartan. Perhaps, because of Covid uncertainties, they had confined the guest list to family members only which would explain the matching tartans. Even the pipers’ kilts matched. I wish I had taken a picture, but now that I am no longer the church scheduler and have no interaction with brides beforehand, I felt it might be a bit intrusive.
The other regular church usage in the summer, of course, is our twelve weeks of Sunday Music Vespers services. Traditionally, they have begun on Fathers’ Day and continued through Labor Day Sunday. At the present time, the Oysterville Restoration Foundation does not have a Vespers Co-ordinator, so Carol Wachsmuth and I have agreed to do the programming for August and September with the caveat that the scheduling will remain flexible — just “in case. ” All things being equal, there will be nine Music Vespers services — five in August and four in September. Keep your fingers crossed!
