EVERETT — The River of Life Community Church on S Second Avenue in Lowell isn’t imposing, but the little wood frame building has a storied history.
The church, formerly the Lowell Community Church, is the oldest in Everett.
It was built in 1892 with lumber and other materials donated by Eugene D. Smith, the logger who originally platted out the town of Lowell in 1873.
In 2009, pastor Jeff Umperovitch arrived, leasing space in the building to establish an Everett branch of the Duvall-based Adventure Church.
The Lowell Community Church had an older congregation, whereas he brought in a younger group.
“So we had an older church and a younger church at the same time,” he said.
After about a year and a half, Lowell Community Church needed a new pastor, and the two churches merged and became River of Life.
“We still do have a very eclectic mix,” Umperovitch said. “We were able to blend that group in very well.”
Umperovitch attributes much of the success of the merger to some of the older members of the church who briefed him on the church’s history in the community.
The church has since added more programming, running a food bank, youth group, hosting meetings and Bible study groups. The church also gets a fair amount of traffic from the nearby Everett Gospel Women’s Mission, he said.
Having a revitalized congregation also helped when it came time to address the church’s physical needs.
“When we got there, there was 20 years deferred maintenance,” Umperovitch said.
The church had to put in a new roof, get the plumbing updated, replace the seats and get rid of the old organ, he said.
In the early days of Lowell, various congregations would hold their services in the storefront of Swalwell’s Land Loan and Trust Co., said David Dilgard, a historian at the Everett Public Library.
Construction was complete in 1892. At first, the entrance was below the bell tower on the northeast corner of the building, somewhat above the street.
Over the years the building has been added to and remodeled, and there is at least one recorded remodel in 1922. That’s when Dilgard thinks the entrance was moved to its current location in the main structure of the building.
According to older photographs at HistoryLink.org, another wing at the south end also appears to have been added around that time.
“It’s been through a lot, but how much of it is original?” Dilgard said.
In recent history, the church was gutted by a fire on the morning of Dec. 31, 1984. The fire caused the roof to collapse, and it was later determined to have been accidental, probably caused by faulty wiring.
The Everett Herald reported at the time that after the fire, volunteers stepped forward to rebuild the church, much as it always has been since its earliest days.
Chris Winters: 425-374-4165; cwinters@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @Chris_At_Herald.
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