Magalia Community Church

MAGALIA COMMUNITY CHURCH is a non-denominational church whose congregation in recent years has outgrown its original house of worship. Still, services are held in the "Little Brown Church" each Sunday and Wednesday. The historical landmark also plays constant host to weddings and memorials. Not bad for a building which would have been torn down in the early 1900's, were it not for the determined efforts of the members of the local Women's Christian Temperance Union -- including Annie Bidwell, wife of Chico's founder, General John Bidwell. The church has gone through changes in its congregation and locations and is looking forward to significant facility development and technology advances in its future. Its basic philosophy remains the same: to be a healing, rather than judging station. Magalia Community Church is one of the oldest churches in Butte County. Founded in 1896, it was the first religious sanctuary in the isolated mining community, according to previously published accounts. It was started by a traveling preacher, Albert Samuel Parsons, who relocated his family to Magalia from the Cherokee area. With the help of miners, he constructed a plain, rectangular building at the "Y" where Coutolenc and Old Magalia roads meet. After several years, the preacher moved away. Interest in the church waned and the chapel remained uncompleted. The property owner, George McLean, asked that the structure be removed. The church might have met an early demise were it not for Carrie Brydon, a Canadian who moved to the California foothills for health reasons. Brydon belonged to the Women's Christian Temperance Union on the ridge and felt the community needed a proper house of worship. Brydon carried an appeal to save the church to the WCTU Chico Chapter, of which Annie Bidwell was an active member. Through the joint efforts of the two chapters, another piece of Magalia property was purchased for a church site. The structure was dismantled and moved piece-by-piece to a new home on Old Skyway. While the church was rebuilt to the same specifications, fixtures of a small town Protestant Church were added including a belfry, vestibule, moldings at the eaves and windows, and a finished interior. A small kitchen was added to the back of the building. A pump organ was purchased from the Presbyterian Church of Chico and is still used. The relocation and remodeling cost about $700. Bidwell is said to have contributed $200 toward the project. The church was officially dedicated in 1904. Over the years, improvements included replacing a pot-bellied stove with a wall heater and piping water into the structure for a restroom. In 1947, the church incorporated and purchased its property from the WTCU chapter. The Chapel was listed on the state and national Registers of Historic Places in the early 1980s. The "Little Brown Church" has been restored to its original, early 1900s look using lumber cut from the property. Honduras Mahogany pews were purchased from the old Adventist Church. The property around the Chapel is going through major changes.