×

Jimmy Carter visits Lock Haven

I was about six years old when Jimmy Carter was elected president. At the time, it wasn’t really big on my radar; I was much more interested in what the SuperFriends were doing. This nice-guy peanut farmer from Georgia was mostly something to occupy the front page of the Weekly Reader.

It was later in life, however, that I came to respect and admire Jimmy Carter. And when I found out that he not only had visited Lock Haven, but loved it, that was a huge point in his favor.

Carter isn’t the only president ever to drop by Lock Haven, but there are two things that make his visit stand out.

One is that he’s the only president who visited Lock Haven, saw a UFO, and was attacked by a rabbit. (All completely true – Look it up.)

The other is that he loved Lock Haven; writer Rebecca Gross quoted Carter as saying it was one of his favorite places in the world. Carter himself, in his memoirs, has written about how special Lock Haven was to him, and the fond memories he has of it. He talks about it at length in his book, “Living Faith.”

It was May of 1968. Jimmy Carter wasn’t yet an ex-president; he wasn’t even a president. He was a politician from Georgia and a Southern Baptist missionary, which is what brought him to Pennsylvania.

He came with a partner to set up a Southern Baptist Church in Lock Haven, which an informal phone poll had suggested was in demand.

Carter and his friend rented a room at the YMCA, which was only a couple of years old at the time, and paid three dollars a night for the place. This was their headquarters as they roamed the city, collecting donations and recruits.

During the visit, Carter had some interesting experiences, as one does when they randomly knock on doors in Lock Haven.

A local woman gave Carter a dollar as a donation to open the church. (This is $743,000 by today’s standards.)

Though most of the people he visited were open and willing to listen, some weren’t thrilled. One woman told Carter that her religious beliefs were perfect as they were, and threw him out of her house. (I’m guessing she voted Gerald Ford a few years later.)

Amusingly, Carter recounts a specific Lock Haven incident in his memoirs. At one point, after asking a Salvation Army worker how to find a certain address, he got directions, but was also asked if he was sure he wanted to go there. He said he was certain without any clarification. (Remember, this is the same guy who reported seeing a UFO in 1969, and thought, “I want to be president. I’ll go public with the UFO story; how could it hurt?”)

When they arrived at the address, they found out that it was a brothel. Apparently nobody had warned Jimmy Carter that Lock Haven was once known for them. And Carter being Carter, he spent two hours attempting to convert a local prostitute to his new church. He didn’t manage to get a new parishioner, but he did get her to agree to call her estranged parents, so there’s that.

Carter and the people working with him were clear that they wanted to start a new church with new recruits, not steal any people from existing churches. This didn’t exactly prevent a bit of friction with some of the pastors of the other churches, who weren’t completely excited about the project.

Carter and his partner ended up gathering about forty people, and enough money to rent a building. He describes it as “an abandoned building near the end of the runway of Piper Aircraft Company.” This was 615 Grant Street, a small stone church.

The building still stands, but is no longer the congregation Carter helped to create – That didn’t last long. After a couple of years, it folded and the people disbanded. Jimmy Carter’s local church no longer exists.

I’ve always admired Jimmy Carter. He’s a good man, and even after losing his re-election for president, he went on to build homes with Habitat For Humanity. And he has fond memories of Lock Haven, and loves my city as much as I do.

——

Lou Bernard is a Lock Haven resident with a keen interest in the history of this area. He is adult services coordinator at Ross Library and may be reached at loulhpa@gmail.com or 570-660-4463.

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

COMMENTS

[vivafbcomment]

Starting at $3.69/week.

Subscribe Today