Prior to 1924, the village of Gold Beach, Ore., was hardly recognized by the Catholic Church until Father L.E. LeMiller decided to build a small place of worship to accommodate the dozen or so parishioners.
Father LeMiller was the pastor of Bandon, a territory including communities along the South Coast to the border with California. He limited his Gold Beach visits to three times a year because of the distance and difficulty of travel.
In Gold Beach, worshipers gathered for Mass in family homes or inside a bedroom at the Sunset Inn. Father LeMiller felt holding service in a hotel bedroom was unacceptable, so he purchased a building lot with his own funds. The church contributed $500 and construction began on a structure to seat 20 worshipers, adequate for resident Catholic families, but requiring visitors to find standing or kneeling room outside.
Father LeMiller continued to make his coastal rounds in a Model-T Ford. Several years after he retired in 1933, plans began to relocate and build a new, larger place of worship.
Today, the little Catholic church still stands, unoccupied, and in disrepair.
Sources: Schroeder, Walt. They Found Gold on the Beach. Curry County Historical Society Press, 1999, pp. 271-72; Black, Rev. Joseph. St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church, Gold Beach 1925-1975. Catholic Sentinel Press, 1975, pp. 5-9.