FORT SCOTT - A Fort Scott native whose family ties to the Old Congregational Church stretch back more than a century has purchased the historic building from the Bourbon County Historical Preservation Association.
Angela Cutbill, daughter of Ron Wood and the late Barbara Wood, purchased the 1873 church at 502 S. National Ave in August of this year.
In an interview with the Monitor, Cutbill said she plans to restore the building, reopen it for community events and use part of it as living space for herself and her husband.
The association announced Aug. 18 that, after about two years of searching for “a responsible buyer,” its board had voted unanimously to sell. The statement described the buyer as someone “born and raised in Fort Scott” with “deep personal ties to the church” and said the buyer’s identity would be announced later.
Those ties run four generations deep.
Cutbill’s great-grandfather, L.G. Wood, began preaching in 1889 and was sent by the Brethren Church to Pennsylvania and Virginia before returning to Fort Scott in 1920, when the Brethren took over the building. He led the church until his death in 1937, she said.
“He had ministered all over Bourbon County. He was well known,” Cutbill said. “It was a pretty big funeral when he died in ’37.”
Her great-grandmother played the church’s organ. Her father grew up in the congregation, and Cutbill attended services there with her grandparents as a child.
A Congregational church on the site burned in the spring of 1872, and its replacement opened in 1873, Cutbill said. It remained a Congregational church until 1920, then housed the Brethren congregation until it closed in 1978.
“It’s really only changed hands twice since 1873,” she said.
After the church closed, the building was headed for demolition to make way for a parking lot until Grace Moore, a local woman, formed the historical association to save it, Cutbill said.
Cutbill, who lives in California, said she heard the association might sell and asked member Brian Allen for a look inside.
“I was overwhelmed by two feelings. One, I did not want to see this church fall into the hands of someone who doesn’t really love it and value its place in the community. Every time I drive by St. Andrew’s and see all the stained glass gone except for one window, I’m very sad. And so I didn’t want to see that happen.”
The second feeling, she said, was that the building should be open to the public again.
“It’s a historic town. It’s a historic building. It’s a fine building,” she said. “I wanted to see it opened up and used.”
She listed art shows, piano recitals and a Christmas candlelight service among the possibilities.
“I felt the community needed to be back in here,” she said.
She took the idea home to her husband, David.
“God love my husband,” she said. “I went home and said, ‘Hey, what do you think about me buying this Congregational church?’ And he was like, ‘Sure, tell me more.’ ”
The sanctuary, with most of its stained glass still intact, is the bright spot. Cutbill said she expects it to need little more than plaster and paint.
“I can sit in here, looking at my own private chapel, and just look at the windows and the light,” she said.
One window has begun to bow, and Cutbill has been referred to a stained-glass restorer in the Kansas City area. She plans to bring in a structural engineer, replace the fire escape and front doors, and address the aging wiring.
The bell tower has a problem of its own: Cutbill estimated that 30,000 pigeons have gotten in through the louvers.
“It’s pigeon city,” she said.
Her plan calls for the rooms behind the sanctuary to become meeting and small-event space with a small kitchen. She also envisions a patio in the churchyard and private living quarters in the upstairs rooms.
Her husband retires in less than two years, she said, and the couple expect to spend far more time in Fort Scott.
She also wants the bell reconnected. Couples married in the church traditionally rang it on their way out, she said.
“I’d like to have the bells ringing again,” she said.
Cutbill said she has no deadline for the project, but she knows what can happen to an empty building.
“My worry was, it’s in amazing shape, but an empty building won’t stay amazing for long,” she said.
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