Pacific Union Recorder

Adventists have been worshipping in Santa Rosa since 1869, just 19 years after California became the nation's 31st state.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church first sent missionaries to California in 1868. The funds for this pioneering venture came from an appeal that church co-founder James White published in the Review and Herald, asking for $1,000 in donations as seed money to finance western expansion.

The missionaries, early church leaders J. N. Loughborough and D. T. Bordeau, traveled throughout Sonoma County visiting the small settlements of Petaluma, Windsor, Santa Rosa and Healdsburg, meeting the people and sharing the Adventist message.

Some people gave them warm, gracious welcomes, but they also had to face obstacles, including a smallpox epidemic that broke out in the village of Bloomfield, near Santa Rosa. While half of the villagers fled, Loughborough and his coworkers stayed behind to care for the sick, bury the dead and teach the survivors to care for themselves.

The Adventist outreach ministry formally began in Santa Rosa on April 22, 1869. Later that year, a church was constructed at Second and B Street, a few blocks from the old courthouse. This 30 by 60 foot structure was dedicated on Nov. 21, 1869, the first Seventh-day Adventist church west of the Rocky Mountains. The building survived the 1906 earthquake, but was sold when the congregation moved to a larger building on Orchard Street.

In the 1940s, the former Presbyterian church on Johnson Street was purchased. However, as the church continued to grow, it became necessary to find a still larger meeting place. For about four years in the 1950s, the Odd Fellows Hall on Pacific Avenue was used for Sabbath services while plans were made to build a spacious new church building near downtown. The current church on Sonoma Avenue was built in 1961.