Construction begins on new $2.3M building at Laurelville Retreat Center

This week Jeanette Lahm gets to watch a construction crew lay the groundwork for a dream 20 years in the making.

Work has begun on The Gathering Place, a building at the center of the campus at Laurelville Retreat Center in Mt. Pleasant Township that is expected to open in the spring of 2025.

“It feels very exciting to see culmination of everyone’s hard work and the donor-dream come to fruition,” said Lahm, the executive director at Laurelville.

Workers at 600-acre campus are harvesting trees that surrounded the former tennis courts on the campus in preparation for installation of the 9,450-square-foot building. Once open, it will be used as a meeting space for religious groups, board meetings, school groups and more.

Although Lahm said the retreat center still seeks to attract new donors outside their core donor group, the funding amassed so far has been enough to get the project started.

With space to hold 400 people, Lahm said The Gathering Place will be a way for the organization to match its lodging capacity. The current largest gathering space on campus, the Meetinghouse, is limited to 175 people.

Sometimes, when additional space is needed, Laurelville will resort to holding meetings in a building called Shenandoah that is built more to serve as a gymnasium— preventing groups from using the space for recreation.

Robby Emerson, director of operations and maintenance at the retreat center, said the new space will not only solve the problem of conflicting uses of the gym, but can also — when remaining $300,000 is raised — provide certain creature comforts Emerson said guests might expect from a church space, like air conditioning and advanced sound systems.

“It’s hard to condition the gym into that space,” Emerson said. “This space [the Gathering Place] will be able to offer more hospitality to our guests.”

Lahm said she hopes to reach the $2.3 million end-goal without having to dip into operating costs to keep their services affordable to a variety of groups — a trait that Lahm said the organization prides itself on.

While Lahm said church groups are Laurelville’s primary niche, the organization brings in school groups, college groups and other nonprofits for retreats and meetings as well.

Emerson said the vision for The Gathering Place will reflect its nature-based retreat mission, with a plan to include elements in the design, such as natural lighting and a mosaic comprised of wood from the property.

“We want to be budget-conscious, but we also want to create a nice space for our guests to meet together and worship together,” Emerson said.

“We’ve really seen the community using Laurelville more and more every year. We hope with this space we’ll get them to use it to grow more.”

The Gathering Place will be the latest addition at the center that has seen renovations to its swimming pool and the addition of a snack shop adjacent to the pool completed in 2020.