The community of Corinne has come together to preserve the oldest standing Protestant church in Utah.
When Corinne City Council Member Karen Caldwell first stepped inside the Corinne Historical Methodist Church building in 2020, she felt an energy she could not explain.
“I knew that this building needed to be saved,” she said. “It earned it.”
Corinne — often referred to as the first “Gentile city” in Utah — was one of the first settlements in the state founded by people not members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. According to Caldwell, funds to build the town’s Historical Methodist Church Building, originally constructed in 1870, were raised in nine days. And for more than 20 years, the building has been used for weddings, recitals, and meetings of all kind under the management of the Corinne Historical Society.
In 2019, the Methodist Church donated the building’s deed to the city. When Caldwell heard the Historical Society’s fear that the building was at risk of being torn down due to its unsafe structure, she knew she had to do something.
“I could feel the history,” Caldwell said. “I could feel the people, the struggles, the laughter. I was overwhelmed with the emotion of that. Their heart was breaking trying to figure out how to keep this building alive. I can’t let go of this building. I can't let go of this project.”
That is when she drafted a resolution for the city council to protect the integrity of the church. Over the past four years since the resolution passed, the Corinne community has come together, in classic Corinne fashion, to save the building without the help of a single Corinne tax dollar.
Since 2020, Caldwell has helped raise nearly $300,0000 from grants and $29,000 from donations and fundraising efforts to go toward the reconstruction of the building. Now, construction is over halfway finished, with all contingency issues paid for solely by community donations.
Like most cities in Utah, Corinne’s small community has faced growth in recent years. While growth is inevitable and important, it must be done in a way that honors history, Caldwell said.
“And this building represents so much history because it’s still standing,” she said. “And it didn’t look good with the bricks eroding, but all that is repaired now and it’s starting to look like its old self again. We have to preserve the history and the dignity of the people that were there before us, because as fast as life is moving today, we have to remember the struggles and what they did back then.”
On June 14 and 15, the Corinne Historical Museum Project will be holding its third annual Old Time Baseball Tournament at Flack Park to raise more funds for the building. Anyone is invited to attend the free event — especially those curious about Corinne’s history.
“This building’s rich history is the best reminder of Corinne’s beginnings and will remind everyone who knows about it of our diversity that is also a large part of Utah’s history,” Caldwell said. “We’re important. Every little town is important.”
