photo by Photo courtesy Freeborn County Historical Museum

Here’s pictorial proof from the early 1970s that the building at the corner of Euclid Avenue and West William Street was once Albert Lea’s Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Old churches find some new uses

Looking Back

By Ed Shannon | Albert Lea Tribune

Published Saturday, November 21, 2009

Editor’s note: This is the first of a three-part series.

There are two buildings next to Albert Lea’s Euclid Avenue, just over a block apart, that once served as churches and now are used for other purposes.

One of these buildings is located at the corner of Euclid Avenue and West William Street.

About 1935, members of the local Seventh- day Adventist Church purchased this lot and a building was moved to this location. Extensive remodeling resulted in a stucco exterior and stained glass windows. A church school was added to the rear of the building and the basement was converted into use as classrooms and a kitchen. In fact, the congregation operated an eight-grade school for 20 years or so.

By 1975, the members of this congregation decided it was time to move into a larger building at a new location. Thus, Albert Lea’s Seventh-day Adventist Church moved to its present location near the corner of U. S. Highway 69 and Michaelle Lane in 1979. Sometime later their former church structure at 424 W. William St. was converted into what’s now a private residence.

Just over a block to the south of this former church is another former church building that is now at least 123 years old.

This building at the corner of Euclid Avenue and West Main Street and near the viaduct still has the appearance of a small country church. According to the late Bidney Bergie, this structure is the city’s oldest known church building. In fact, Bergie was once involved with an effort to have this particular building placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The basic wooden building was constructed for Zion’s German Methodist Episcopal Church in 1886. This congregation ceased activities in 1915.

Within a few years St. John’s German Evangelical Lutheran Church was in the building until the early 1940s.

By 1944, the building was being used by the Peoples Church, which was listed in the 1947 city directory as The Peoples Church (Assembly of God).

The Peoples Church occupied the building until 1952, when it was replaced by the Church of Christ. This congregation used the building until 1969, when it was sold to the United Pentecostal Church. (This Church of Christ soon moved to its present location at 1705 S.E. Marshall St.)

When the United Pentecostal Church moved a block further south on Euclid Avenue into a brick building on West College Street in 1974, the small structure became vacant for a short time. (The brick building at 501 W. College St. is now the address for Grace Christian Church.)

A history account in the 1988 Freeborn County History book had this comment based on a second Church of Christ, “In October 1974, the church moved to the little white church building on the corner of Main and Euclid in Albert Lea (until September 1975).” This particular congregation is now located at 919 James Ave.

The then white painted building became the home for the Albert Lea Art Center from 1976 to 1986. After the Art Center moved to the former Rivoli Theater site on Broadway Avenue, the building was converted into a craft store known as Country Pleasures for about two years.

Still another occasion came when the building was used for worship services by the Church of God of Prophecy from 1989 to 1993, according to listings in the city directories.

In late 1995, the building was remodeled into a distinctively different gift and home decor store by Sue Wright who gave the place the name of The Bird’s Nest.

In early 2000, this shop was purchased by Carol Riskedahl, who changed the name to the present Something Special in the Nest.

Next: Two more former Albert Lea church buildings that have been converted to newer uses.

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