Orchard Lake Chapel
Date Visited: August 24, 2019
Stop: #50
What
do you want to do for dinner? I don’t know, what do you feel like? I don’t know. Not pizza. Yeh, not pizza. Burgers? Nah, I don’t feel like a burger. How about Pasquale’s? Mmmm, I love Pasquale’s, but it’s kinda
out of the way. Let’s do something
closer to home.
And, so it went. Then, all of a sudden, Kathy says “Hey,
there’s a sign!” Fortunately, I had time
to slow down and make a last second turn into a parking lot (with no squealing
of the tires, I might add), and drove back across the expanse of blacktop to
the building. The building in question
was a church – a huge church, which would explain the huge expanse of blacktop that
served as its parking lot. The church
was also on a lake, which we later found out was Orchard Lake. What a beautiful setting for a church. We did not know what church, though, so
fortunately the large neon sign along Commerce Road told us it was the Orchard
Lake Community Church, Presbyterian.
This would end up being our 50th stop on our quest to visit
every Michigan Historical Marker and every Michigan Winery and Tasting Room.
Just to provide some insight
regarding the location of the marker, we had driven about 4.7 miles east of the
Commerce Burying Ground. The historical
marker is located on the right side of Commerce Road when traveling east. It is very close to the road, which was
probably the biggest reason Kathy saw it as we were driving by. The marker itself is in rough condition. It is listing severely towards the church,
and a lot of the paint for the border and some of the words has flaked
off. But it was exciting that we got to
check off another sign to our growing list of historical markers.
The historical marker really
does not provide a lot of information about the church. It mentions that early settlers to the area
were devout Christians and that beginning in 1825, they were served by
itinerant preachers. Backed by Colin and
Caroline Campbell, the chapel was built on land donated by Peter Dow. The area had become a popular place to gather
during the summer months, and this influx of visitors created a need for a
place to worship. The chapel was
dedicated on July 18, 1874, with many worshipers arriving on steamboat. The church took on its current name in 1943.
As is the case with many of
the places we visit, I try to find additional historical information about the topic,
mostly with no success. With so little
information provided by the historical marker, I turned to the internet once
again to see if I could find out more, and was pleasantly surprised when I
found a historical book about the church.
Now, this book is a bit dated. It
was published in 1959 by the church with information compiled by J. A. Van
Coevering. The reading is interesting,
but being 60 years old, uses language that, by today’s standards, would be
considered offensive. In fact, there is
a note that appears on the second page that warns that some words used are not
politically correct by today’s standards.
The book is only 32 pages long, and it is a very easy read. It does provide some interesting information
about the church through the years leading up to 1959, as well as some
historical photographs that help bring the words to life. Just as interesting is the narrative about a
couple of the more prominent people associated with the church – Peter Dow, and
the Church matriarch, Caroline Campbell.
In fact, a few pages of the book are dedicated to the actual writing of
Caroline as she shares her perspective on the history of the chapel. Instead of paraphrasing the document, I will
just provide a link to it below:
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