First Presbyterian Church

 Many Waunakee residents were Presbyterians, including business owner Jacob Buhlman and landowner Ira P Bacon. Rev. B. Riley, a missionary from the Lodi First Presbyterian Church, began church services in a carpentry chop. A new church was built in 1878 which is the building that is in the pictures. In 1968, the Church contracted Waunakee's Simon Builders to create a Christian education wing for teaching and fellowship. 25 years later, the congregation sold the church and built a larger building on the south edge of Waunakee.

This church's congregation was originally in a carpentry shop until the congregation paid $500 in order to get a church built. In addition to the loan, the congregation raised $19 hosting a community "Hard Times Sociable" dinner in 1878. People who attended the dinner paid 5 cents each to eat only corn out of a bowl with an iron spoon, served by men and women playing calico.

In the 1950s, the church was able to add a kitchen, furnace room, an additional restroom, and replace the original pews. The church also paid off its 500-dollar mortgage in 1944. By the 1960s, the church steeple had deteriorated and been removed after selling the church and building a new bigger building in Waunakee. The old building sat empty for a number of years. Then, a school teacher named Heather Murray, who is my Mom. bought this church and turned it into a preschool named Arthouse Preschool.

Brenner, Katie. Waunakee and Westport. Images of America. Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia Pub., 2012.

“History.” FPC. Accessed December 12, 2022. https://www.myfpc.org/our-history/.