Many in Monroe County are sure to have fond memories of Old Baum Church. 

Located along one of the more quiet roads in the county, the church has served as a lovely venue for photo ops and a fair share of weddings while also having a rich history dating back to the 1800s.

Though the church has been closed for two years due to structural issues, Sunday marked the reopening of the location after no small effort to get the much needed repairs done.

The church was originally built in 1883 to serve an Evangelical congregation, though it was later dissolved in 1939 as members began attending service elsewhere, primarily at what is now St. Paul’s United Church of Christ in Waterloo.

Vacant for decades, the church located at 5779 Old Baum Church Road began to receive new attention in the 1970s as the Salem-Baum Cemetery Association was formed to study the ancestry of the church’s cemetery and take care of the church itself.

Steve Wheat serves on the association’s board, though his history with the church and its grounds goes back to his childhood.

“I was raised out here on a family farm, my grandparents’ farm,” Wheat said. “We moved out here in ’76, I guess, and was always around the church. It was closed, obviously, by then, but I remember growing up around it. And then, after me and the wife were married, we moved out here right next door.”

He recalled a rather impactful event for the church: the loss of its roof in 1977.

Wheat said the event was an unfortunate accident which occurred amid a clean-up effort around the church which, as he said, was basically in a forest at the time.

As those cleaning the church were burning surrounding brush, some embers drifted up on top of the roof, which was quickly lost.

The stone church has stood in that state for the last few decades, still cared for by the association.

Some new life was breathed into the church in 2012 when the first of many couples requested to use the church for their wedding.

Wheat said in the years that followed, the church saw an average of 19 weddings each year, with folks renting benches or bringing their own lawn chairs.

Some couples had to contend with rain during their ceremony, and Wheat recalled at least one wedding which had a snake come to witness the happy couple. Drone pictures at the church have been quite impressive as well.

Wheat said opening the church up for weddings was a substantial help in taking care of it.

“This isn’t a business,” Wheat said. “It got started, it was kind of a neat idea to help a few folks out. Something different. It was almost getting to be larger than life at one point until we had the rocks coming down, and we stopped it. Being a wedding planner is not my first career, so I kinda got thrust into that role because I live right next door.”

As Wheat said, the venue was closed about two years ago as it was observed that stones from the steeple were coming loose and falling.

The association didn’t have the necessary funds for a substantial repair project, but it was able to work with the county – which still had COVID-19 funds set aside for historical restoration projects – as well as former Waterloo Mayor Tom Smith, whom Wheat credited with getting the association in touch with a tuckpointing company.

This effort culminated in the ribbon-cutting ceremony Sunday afternoon in which several dozen individuals packed into the church to celebrate its reopening.

“I guess you could call it a rebirth of this building that was basically in disrepair, and it’s back into a usable piece of property again,” Wheat said.

Wheat remarked on the church’s history as well as its place in Monroe County, referring to it as an institution.

“I think a lot of people have a connection with the building, or their ancestors are buried in the cemetery back there,” Wheat said. “You don’t see that a lot in the younger people, but the venue itself, I mean, anywhere you go, you say Old Baum Church and they’ll say homecomings, weddings, bus loads coming out there for photos.”

He also remarked on what the future holds for the church, expressing hopes that the association and those who watch over the church in the future keep it in the best shape possible. 

“I think the biggest thing now is trying to maintain what we have, try to raise some funds just to keep it up,” Wheat said. “It’s been in disrepair so long. We never had the kind of money it took to even get it to this point, and now we’re in a position where we’ve got it fixed, any small repairs we can keep up with it for the next generation. And I’m hoping the next generation takes care of it as much as we try to do.”

To contact Wheat about scheduling events at the church, email whtsauto@htc.net.