Original Church
Built in 1912
STewards of yesterday
Rockaway Community Church
When the new Community Church was built in 1974, the old church building found a new life as the home of the Rockaway Beach Lions Club. But its story stretches back much farther.
On March 16, 1925, a meeting was held here to form a Commercial Club. The men announced that membership would be limited to men only. The women present, undeterred, simply rose, moved into the adjoining community room, and formed their own organization on the spot, the Women’s Civic Club of Rockaway. Thirteen women signed their names that day. Mrs. Lois Halderson was elected president, and Blanche Wood took notes as secretary pro tem. Within a year, their modest club of thirteen had grown to thirty-four members.
The Women’s Civic Club became a force in town life. In 1945, they sold the old Sohler Building and, the following year, purchased the lots where they would build their own clubhouse. Construction was finished in 1948, financed by a $1,500 mortgage scheduled for ten years; yet, the women paid it off in seven.
When the new church was finally completed in 1974, the building was sold to Gordon Nichols. The next year, Purley McCredle remodeled it into an apartment with a small store and opened the Rockaway Thrift Shop, which operated until 1977. That same year, Norman and Rita Kraus opened a shop with the memorable name You Know That Place. In 1980, Ann and Frank Henkel purchased the property and ran the Bargain Center, adding yet another chapter to the building’s long and adaptable life.
And today, as the meeting place of the Lions Club, the building continues to serve exactly as it always has, a gathering place, shaped by the people who fill it.