Good Samaritan Church will mark building’s 50th anniversary

Letters on a weathered, gray cornerstone on the outer wall of the Good Samaritan Episcopalian Church in Colfax are barely legible; “AD 1891.” The cornerstone on the other side reads 1960.

The 50th anniversary of the Good Samaritan Episcopalian Church building will be observed Sunday, Oct. 17.

Episcopalian services have been conducted in Colfax since 1887.

An open house will be at the church with a morning prayer session at 11 a.m. Visitors can tour the church, meet members and partake in the refreshments. A lesson on the church’s history since its creation will also be given.

The original church building was constructed in 1891. The 1891 cornerstone and stained glass windows from the burned out building on Golgotha street were installed in the new structure.

The original building featured a large tower which was a distinctive feature on the Colfax skyline. The church was constructed on East Golgotha on the hill site behind what is now Chase Bank. The church underwent extensive remodeling in 1924, and services continued to be conducted on the site until a fire in 1956 gutted the building, according to the “Colfax 100 Plus” history written by Edith Erickson.

Three years later the church purchased the present church site, then a house with two lots on the south side of Thorn Street, from Lewis Smawley for $6,500.

The three bright stained glass panels light up the front of Good Samaritan sanctuary and one bright circular panel lights up the back. Church members in the 1880s sent away for the panels back east, and they were shipped to Colfax for construction of the building in 1891.

“They were in the original building, survived the fire and we put them in this building, said church warden Susan Kile.

Formerly Susan Fowler, Kile is a St. John native who has attended the church since 1963.

Kile was able to dig out the original historic application for the creation of the Colfax church. Two laminated copies of the document, a letter to the main Episcopalian diocese of Washington Territory which sought permission to become an accepted church within the diocese.

“And for these benefits we do hereby place ourselves under the spiritual jurisdiction of the bishop of Washington Territory,” read a sentence of the document. It is signed by a list of Colfax area residents.

Kile said the church has about 20 members today. Father John Grabner from Pullman conducts a service once a month at the Colfax church. For the other three Sundays of the month they have a morning prayer session and service led by a member of the congregation.

The church was more active in the 1960s and 1970s, Kile said, pointing out they had their own junior choir and a larger congregation.

Kile said the church has had a guiding influence on her faith as she has attended most of her life.

“It’s just a place for renewing your spirituality.”