The newspaper article highlights a potential new church home for the Saint Anne Orthodox Church. This church formed in Albany, OR in 1990 and moved into this historic former grange hall building in 2003. The church is erecting a much bigger building back in Albany but still holds services here during construction. The article reads:
St. Anne Orthodox Church, which currently operates out of the Lewisburg Grange Hall north of Corvallis, will have a new home in North Albany in the next two to three years.
(And, yes, that means the annual Greek Food Fest, set for Oct. 11 and Oct. 12 this year, also will move.)
The church will build a new facility on land it purchased near the junction of North Albany Road and Gibson Hill Road. The sale closed Sept. 15.
“We’ve outgrown the space we’ve been at,” said Father Stephen Soot.
St. Anne Orthodox Church now has 150 people in its congregation. When it moved into the historic Lewisburg building in 2003, it had about half that many worshippers, Soot said.
Eventually, the church will sell the grange hall, which it owns.
Soot added that the church paid $270,000 for its new 3-acre property at 1033 Gibson Hill Road N.W., purchasing it from the estate of Oliver and Connie Petty.
Petty, a former Democrat-Herald reporter, wrote the first article about the church forming in 1990.
At that time, members gathered in downtown Albany at the United Presbyterian Church.
“We had a handful (of people),” Soot said.
Soot said the church was looking for land with or without buildings on the north side of Corvallis or in North Albany.
“A lot of our members come from Independence and Monmouth,” as well as Albany, Corvallis and Lebanon, he explained.
The Petty family property has a house on it now. “We will use it initially. We’re not entirely sure how we’re going to use it. It needs a lot of renovation work,” Soot said.
Soot wasn’t sure how much it will cost to construct a new church facility, which will include classrooms and a fellowship hall.
He added that the church intended to keep the park-like setting of the property.
“It should be an attractive parcel in the neighborhood,” Soot said.
St. Anne was competing for the property with developers who wanted to create another subdivision.
Soot said the church is looking forward to having more neighbors.
In Lewisburg, the neighbors are great, Soot said, but they’re also few and far between.
In North Albany, “We can have more of a positive impact on the neighborhood. ... People can get to know us easier when you’re in the middle of a community, instead of on the outskirts,” Soot said.