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South River Winery is housed in a century-old Chapel that was first built in 1892,
fifty miles away from its current location, in Shalersville, Ohio, by the carpenter
John Libis.On the afternoon of December 5th, 1892, Libis slipped from the roof trusses while framing the building and plunged nearly 20 feet to the unfinished floor joists below. Though severely injured, he lived to complete the building in the Spring of 1894, a year behind schedule, at a cost of $2,200.
For 76 years, this structure served as a Methodist Episcopal (ME) church, until the building was abandoned by the congregation around 1970.
After sitting vacant for 30 years, the building was slated for demolition in
2000 to make way for a convenience store. In February of 2000, Farmers from
South River Vineyard and a crew of Amish carpenters began dismantling the
building nail-by-nail and shipping the chapel as a pile of lumber back to Harpersfield.
Local political leaders in the Township rose up and tried to block the building's reconstruction in a "residential neighborhood," vowing never to allow weddings and music in the restored Chapel.
On January 1, 2002, the South River Winery tasting room opened in the restored chapel, and on May 19th the first couple exchanged vows on the restored altar.
During the reconstruction, a time capsule was salvaged from the building and
returned to the remnants of the original congregation. It was a copper box, about
the size of a shoe box, soldered shut.
When opened, the copper inside was
unweathered and still glowed with the original finish. It contained two leather
bound bibles, a list of the 25 members of the church at the time of construction,
some local newspaper articles, business cards, and several Indian head pennies.