Wanup couple buys old schoolhouse, church to house new community centre

Rusty Cross has lived her whole life in Wanup, but it's been getting harder to recognize.

"At one time you knew everybody inWanup, you don't any more," she said of the rural community in the southern reaches of Greater Sudbury.

"We had to depend on each other. Like, going to town, that was an excursion. It's not any more. People are running the roads continuously. So, there isn't that need to have that sense of community like there used to be."

That disconnect has been clearer in recent years. The Wanupschool closed and is now a private residence. And then, the community hall, which hosted everything from weddings to Christmas parties,was also sold to private owners.

"All of a sudden we no longer had that connection. So, something had to be done," she said.

Cross and her husband Erik Seyler jumped when they saw that the old Finnish Lutheran church in Wanup was for sale.

"When we walked in, there was something that said, it had to be ours," said Cross, who paid $66,000 for the property."It was for the community."

The Little Wanup Chapel, as they now call it,is a piece of local history itself. It was built in 1923 as a one-room schoolhouse and became a church when a bigger and more modern school was built in the 1960s.

So far the chapel has hosted quilting clubs, church services, a swap meet and a public meeting with Wanup's city councillor and Cross is hoping to see more weddings, parties and other events in the future.

For now, the couple is covering the costs of running a community centre, but are accepting donations from those who use it.

"We're carrying it for now. We don't want to make money on it. We would like for it to eventually break even or even come close," Cross said.