Building connections in Owls Head
Carter and Linda Abare are Owls Head “lifers,” born and raised in this isolated northern Adirondack hamlet. Now in their early 70s, they sit next to one another in the modest white building that once housed St. Joseph’s Catholic Church. It’s where Carter was an altar boy and where he and Linda took their wedding vows. Across the table from them sits Marcie Ryan, whose brother’s funeral in 2004 was the last time Mass was held here.
When the church closed, Owls Head and neighboring Mountain View lost more than a house of worship — they lost one of their town’s few remaining gathering spaces. For 17 years, the church sat vacant.
“Small rural communities have to have a focus, or they begin to die,” says Rev. John Werley, a semi-retired pastor and Owls Head’s resident bread baker. He and his neighbors recognized the need for a dedicated space that could serve many functions.
In July 2022, community members formed a nonprofit called Owls Head Community Connection and set about raising $44,000 to buy the vacant church. By October 2023, they had reached their goal. Generous Acts grants in 2022 and 2023 allowed them to hire Marcie as the part-time program director.
Small rural communities have to have a focus, or they begin to die," says Rev. John Werley, a semi-retired pastor and Owls Head's resident bread baker.
The president of the board is Susan Day Fuller, who moved to Mountain View in 2003, bringing a background in community revitalization. She says the Foundation’s support helped to build the organization’s “credit rating.”
Patsy’s Place — as the community center is known, in memory of a big-hearted local who passed away — has hosted Fourth of July bashes, weekly bingo, programs for kids, graduation and birthday parties, an eclipse-watching extravaganza, and the summer luncheons for Ladies of the Lakes, a century-old club of residents of Mountain View and Owls Head.
Steve and Mary Valley, who split their time between Owls Head and Florida, are active on the center’s Advisors committee. Steve is the retired director of Essex County Mental Health Services, and says, “Gathering spaces like this one are safe, easily accessible locations close to home. They are critical to the emotional, as well as physical, wellbeing of residents in isolated communities.”
Mary points out that the programming also provides “a bridge between summer and year-round people,” a divide that many Adirondack communities struggle to overcome.
The community has big dreams for this space — a commercial kitchen and a community garden among them. It won’t happen overnight, but as long as they’re dreaming, they’re envisioning a future that defies the demographic trends of rural America.
As Reverend John says, “Owls Head is not dead. It has this.”
