Our History

Near the turn of the 20th century, less than two decades after the city of Coeur d’Alene was established, the founding families of the Coeur d’Alene Seventh-day Adventist Church arrived in town and began meeting together in a home on the spot where Kootenai Medical Center now stands. It was a fresh start and a dream come true. Anything was possible.

Occasionally, pastors and evangelists came to hold tent meetings in the area. In the fall of 1908, a series of well-attended tent meetings with Spokane pastor E. H. Huntley, laymen from Spokane and Colfax, and Sister Wilkensen, a Bible worker, resulted in twenty baptisms. The original group swelled beyond the core family members to a solid 37. These thirty-seven passionate people became the charter members of what is now the Coeur d’Alene Seventh-day Adventist Church.

The active young congregation soon realized that they needed more than homes for meeting and outreach. With the help of local business and church members, they laid the foundation for their first building in April 1909, at the corner of 5th and Maple. By June, the 24-foot by 44-foot structure was completed, paid for and dedicated. With a building came the desire to provide quality Christian education within their community, which they initiated that fall. They eventually added a 20-foot by 36-foot school building behind the church.

Throughout the years, the ardent assemblage stayed true to their roots, which stimulated growth in both the church and the school. They merged with a group of German-speaking Seventh-day Adventists in the Dalton and Hayden areas. The school moved to 6th and Wallace and then, in the late 50s, to the current site of both church and school, Locust Avenue. The school was built first with the church construction starting in 1967 and opening services were held on June 29th, 1968, almost exactly 59 years after the first church was completed on 5th Street. Much of the work was done by volunteers and members, which was substantial testimony to the group’s dedication and love for the Coeur d’Alene community.

Today, both the school and church buildings have been remodeled, expanded, and updated. In 2019, the word “Junior” was dropped from the name of the school to better reflect plans for an eventual buildup to 12 grades. In early 2020, after years of waiting, the first phase of a three-part expansion to the current school facility was completed. Six new classrooms, with state-of-the-art technology, provide room for the school’s enrollment to grow in step with the expanding Coeur d’Alene community. Now three constituent churches, Coeur d’Alene Adventist, Summit Northwest Ministries, and Post Falls Adventist work together to support the mission of LCA. Today, we echo the words of Ralph Molstead, a key member in the early days of the church, “The Lord is so good to us! When you look at all that has been done here, you don’t put any glory on individuals! Only God has made it happen.”

As our expansion continues with our current construction, we are blessed to be able to look back on our long and enduring history of Christian education in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.