A Newhall church is looking to rebuild after an 80-foot tree crashed through the back of their congregation hall Saturday, severely damaging the 87-year-old building.

Built by German immigrants in 1932, the hall used by the Havenhouse Foursquare Church – currently their sanctuary – was originally a dance hall, built as part of a beer garden established in the then-rural Santa Clarita Valley, according to Pastor John Boone.

By the time the church purchased the land in the 80s, several large trees had taken root on the property, including a loose cluster near the back of what would become the sanctuary.

One of those trees, which an arborist told Boone was at least 76 years old, collapsed in the storm that hit Santa Clarita over the weekend. Church officials estimated the tree was at least 80 feet tall.

Pieces of the roof, alongside tons of wood from the tree, crashed to the floor. Boone said it will take until at least Friday before demolition crews would be able to clean up and carve all of the pieces of tree trunk into moveable pieces.

“When I opened the front door of the church I saw the roof caved in,” Boone said.  “You could see sunlight and the tree coming out of the roof of the church. It was just an incredible sight of destruction. It’s amazing what one tree can do.”

He counts the church blessed that the tree came down on a Saturday when nobody was in the building. If it had been the next morning, it would have come down directly into the area where church staff prepared for Sunday services just as they were setting up.

“It was surreal,” Boone said. “I was hoping it was a bad dream. The next couple of mornings when I was waking up, I was hoping it was a bad dream, but it wasn’t.”

Members of the 125-person church were told services were cancelled Saturday, and scrambled to make new Sunday morning plans. Some went to other churches for service. One family hosted an impromptu service in their home.

“We’ve had to make some adjustments,” Boone said.

The church is known for its bowl-shaped roof – the first time the technology had been used in California, according to Boone.

“They took wood and bent the wood so it would form these trusses,” he explained, pointing to where the roof used to be. “It’s unique architecture. It’s very beautiful. It’s very old school.”

Contractors were able to salvage one-third of the roof, which Boone said will be used to recreate the rest. The building was insured, and the money should be enough to cover the cost of repairs, he said.

“We’re going to try and keep the same look,” he said. “We’ll have to take steps at that point to meet with architects and structural engineers and see how to put things back together again. It’s going to take months but we’re hoping for the best.”

In the meantime, church leaders are preparing their Fellowship Hall, a smaller building next door, to fit the congregation. The hall is about half the size of the sanctuary, but Boone is confident it will fit the whole group.

While church services go on next door, Boone will be directing the demolition of damaged portions of the old hall and preparing for a new roof.

“We’re hoping to get to keep the same kind of basic look and feel, and beauty that was created back in the 30s,” he said. But improvements will be made. “It will be reinforced with new technology. There’s going to be some steel inside the beams, and things they didn’t do back in the day.”

Standing in front of the sanctuary’s main entrance, Boone remarked that if he didn’t know better, there would be no reason to suspect anything was wrong with the building. But as he started to walk along the side of the building towards the destruction in the back, he stopped to look at the rest of the trees looming around the building. Those, he said, might have to be addressed.

“I hate to take good trees out, but after you’ve been through this, you don’t want to take any chances.”

KHTS FM 98.1 and AM 1220 is Santa Clarita’s only local radio station. KHTS mixes in a combination of news, traffic, sports, and features along with your favorite adult contemporary hits. Santa Clarita news and features are delivered throughout the day over our airwaves, on our website and through a variety of social media platforms. Our KHTS national award-winning daily news briefs are now read daily by 34,000+ residents. A vibrant member of the Santa Clarita community, the KHTS broadcast signal reaches all of the Santa Clarita Valley and parts of the high desert communities located in the Antelope Valley. The station streams its talk shows over the web, reaching a potentially worldwide audience. Follow @KHTSRadio on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.