Following its closure earlier this year, New Richland’s oldest church has been purchased by a Waseca couple who were part of the congregation and have deep family roots in the area. Now, they’re hoping to turn the historic space into an events center.
Built in 1882, First Congregational Church served as a beating heart of New Richland’s tight-knit community. Over the decades, generations of New Richland natives grew up in the church, got married there, had their kids baptized and slowly grew older with each Sunday service.
General trends of declining church attendance, exacerbated by the pandemic, hit small town churches like New Richland First Congregational hard. With younger generations eschewing regular attendance at Sunday services, the congregation shrank one funeral at a time.
On May 26, the church held its final service before closing its doors. While the decision to close was incredibly hard on the church’s remaining members, many of whom have never known another church, church leaders say they didn’t have the members or funds to keep going.
In those painful final days, Ethan and Angel Hagan were among the congregation’s more youthful members, though, like other members, they had family ties going back generations. After the closure, the church’s committee decided to sell the church to the Hagans.
Ethan Hagan emphasized that the church is deeply special to him and his wife, and that they have every intention of “trying to keep the spirit of the church alive,” preserving the historic New Richland institution and ensuring it remains a special community gathering place.
“The Steeple Event Center,” as it is set to be called, already has its own preliminary website, thesteepleeventcenter.com , which touts the building’s versatile ability to host, not only weddings, but family reunions, business meetings, birthday and graduation parties, and community events.
“Anything and everything that the community could use, we’re open to it,” Angel Hagen said. “We just don’t want to demolish the oldest church in town.”
With the sanctuary almost fully preserved, the Hagans touted the space’s ability to host traditional weddings for people who may not be associated with a church at this time. Angel added that, for old time’s sake, “The Steeple” could even host the occasional church service.
Ethan Hagan said that renovations may be coming down the road, but the first task will be to bring the building up to code. Much of the building has been “grandfathered in,” despite not meeting modern codes, and will need to be fixed up.
Councilors expressed strong support for the ambitious plans and vision. City Administrator Antony Martens urged the Hagans to pay a visit to the EDA meeting, saying that the city agency could help to unlock funding opportunities to help pay for necessary repairs and improvements.
“We just got awarded a grant from the state, and we’re actually looking for a project; we don’t have a project in place right now, so this could potentially fit in with that,” Martens told the Hagans.
Interim Mayor Loren Skelton recalled how, when he was growing up in New Richland in the 1960s, the old Creamery was successfully transformed into a Youth Center, with significant positive effects for the whole community.
Skelton expressed a belief that the city should do whatever it can to support the Hagans in their effort.
However, he personally won’t be part of that effort, as he announced his intent to resign as interim mayor, citing personal health challenges and a desire to move closer to family.
With Skelton’s resignation, the council appointed Councilor Janda Ferguson as its new interim mayor effective immediately. Ferguson is the third person to sit in the mayor’s chair in 2024, with former Mayor Chad Neitzel also resigning April 1, due to his own move away.
In moving up to the interim mayor’s position, Ferguson has created another vacancy on the council. Earlier this year, councilors appointed police officer Ryan Gehrke to fill the vacancy caused by Skelton’s elevation.
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