Church Plan by Benjamin D. Price

     It’s been a matter of public record and family history that, back in 1892, my great-grandfather, R. H. Espy, donated the land and the sum of $1500 for the building of the Baptist Church in Oysterville .  As for who did the actual construction, the record is silent.  Was it Master Carpenter John Peter Paul (1828-1910) who built the Pacific County Courthouse in Oysterville in 1875?  Or was 1892 too late for him to consider a project such as the church with its very tall steeple and intricate finials?
     There has been some speculation, also, about where the plans came from.  Years ago, a visitor said that she thought the design was a kind of boiler plate or cookie cutter plan put out by the Methodist Church during the nineteenth century.  That idea seemed to be corroborated when we realized that the old Methodist Church in Bay Center looked to be identical to our Baptist Church in Oysterville.
     New information came just the other day through the Oysterville Restoration Foundation website.  David Peterson of Nicholson Kovalchick Architects in Seattle sent a back issue of the “The New Jersey Churchscape,” The 2009 issue provides extensive news about church architecture among Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists during the second half of the nineteenth century:
     According to an 1885 magazine published by the Methodist church, the BCE (Board of Church Extension) began in 1870 by publishing ‘illustrations and brief descriptions’ of churches, and referred parties interested to the architects who could furnish them. Then we had a few plans lithographed, with specifications printed, which we could furnish at greatly reduced rates…TAKE NO STEPS TOWARD BUILDING BEFORE SECURING OUR CATALOGUE.”
     In 1876 the BCE contracted with Benjamin D. Price, Architect, to prepare plans for a range of affordable churches from very simple structures to rather stylish ones, mostly with a Gothic flavor.  By 1885, Price had prepared 67 church plans and the Board had sold 1,975 copies of these plans by mail, at a cost ranging from $2 to $50.
     An illustration shows a drawing for a church similar (but not identical) to the Oysterville Church and includes three different sets of measurements.  The plans were listed for $8.00 for the smallest, $9.00 for the medium-sized and $10.00 for the largest.  The final notation says:  Approximate cost, $900 to $1600. Presumably, that was an estimate for the cost of construction.
     There still is much room for speculation.  Did the Oysterville Baptists use their $1500 to buy plans for the smallest ($900) church and then spend their remaining money for lumber?  Or  were the plans sold kit-fashion, complete with dimension lumber and nails, as in the later Sears Roebuck Company’s Modern Homes program?  Would that have left money to hire the carpenter?
     As I often remark, for every new bit of information, ten more questions surface.  But it’s nice to know that Oysterville, even 120 years ago, was in tune with the greater world.