The Daily O’Collegian

To those who knew and loved it, the little coffee shop and café on Stillwater’s Strip will be missed

Students passing by stop and peer into the coffee shop’s dark windows in confusion and dismay.

Their eyes scan the room, passing over the bookcase and empty round tables once covered in board games, laptops and homework.

After eight years of struggling with finances, Third Place’s doors are not opening any time soon.

“We’ve made the decision to close Third Place for now basically just out of financial reasons,” said Dawnell Reese, pastor of Mosaic Community. “Since 2000, since it’s been open, over half of the church’s budget has gone to support Third Place and what it needs to stay open, and this summer, even that wasn’t enough.”

Mosaic Community opened Third Place in August 2000.

Church elder Cindy Schaefer said if students didn’t realize a church owned Third Place, it was because the church stayed in the background and kept its role quiet.

“We didn’t want any exclusion of anyone who doesn’t consider themselves Christian,” Reese said. “That’s what we fought to protect.”

However, Third Place had no trouble filling its space with people, and open tables were hard to find.

Lauren White, an environmental sophomore, said it’s difficult to see how a business so popular and so loved could struggle financially.

“Yeah, a lot of things that people don’t realize about when you walk by and you see this place packed full of people is a lot of them are students who buy maybe one cup of $1.50 coffee, and they sit here for 6 hours,” Reese said. “And that’s OK, but it just doesn’t make money. So looks can be deceiving on nights, again, where this room was as crowded as it could contain. It didn’t necessarily mean that we made any profit that night.”

Mosaic Community is adjacent to the Third Place and is selling its sanctuary to the city, which will tear down the building and a wall of the coffee shop to connect Third Street.

While the city’s project is not the main reason Third Place is closing, it added to the church’s financial struggles.

“That’s part of the affect of the city coming through and taking this building,” Reese said. “We have to be able to pay rent in another facility now in addition, where as this was one facility for us.”

The church used Third Place as a Sunday morning children’s center but now will have to rent extra rooms at the Stillwater Community Center, where it is relocating.

Reese said the ensuing construction of the project would have closed Third Place anyway.

Third Place was the project of church member J.D. Bump and was designed to be a mission outreach.

“The vision behind it was to provide a “third” place literally, somewhere else besides your home or your place of work for people to go and to develop relationships, maybe find answers for life – a safe environment to provide for people,” Reese said. “ And the other huge motivation and thing that we wanted to support through Third Place was social justice issues in the community.”

Schaefer said Third Place hosted food drives, clothing drives, including a coat drive a few winters ago, and art shows so students could display their work.

“It was developed completely to serve people, serve the community, and that’s why the church hasn’t minded for all these years for money to go to it, instead of to things ministry wise through the church, and would probably would continue to keep [Third Place] going if it weren’t in such a place that just the budget can’t support it at this point,” Reese said.

Closing the coffee shop was hard decision that the church, especially its eldership, had sought to avoid, Schaefer said.

Schaefer and Reese said the church wasn’t paying its staff members, such as full-time pastors, full-time children leaders and worship leaders, so more money could go to Third Place and its workers.

Eldership members donated all they could from their personal savings accounts, and it still wasn’t enough to open the doors in August.

“It had to come to that for us because we were so invested in the ministry of the Third Place and we did not want the doors to close,” Schaefer said. “So it really had to come to putting in our personal money and when we were out of money, then we were done.”

Schaefer’s eyes were teary as she explained why Third Place had to close and what the eldership had sacrificed.

While the café did support and promote social issues, such as The Invisible Children of Uganda, financial burdens left the church’s vision unfulfilled, Reese said.

“We wanted it to really get into the needy situations of the community and do something about it,” Reese said. “And when finances have continuously kept that from happening, we need to do something different to make that a realization.”

White said that although she loves Third Place, she agrees with the church’s decision to close.

“I don’t know how many students went there all the time that didn’t realize the purpose of the coffee shop to begin with,” White said. “So in a way, it’s sad that Mosaic doesn’t want to fund it anymore, but I would say that is almost irresponsible for them to continue because it wasn’t meeting what they originally designed it to do, even though it was an amazing place.”

Reese said Third Place isn’t closing for good, but it may not reopen as a coffee shop.

“We don’t know what’s it’s going to look like, but we’re dreaming really big right now and know we have figure out a different way to make it work financially,” Reese said. “The money isn’t important as far as making a profit, but the money is important as far as offering the right vehicle to do what it is that we passionately feel like the Third Place is supposed to do in this community.”

Reese and Schaefer said even though Third Places doors are closed, the vision still lives in their hearts and they are proud of what Third Place was.Although the city’s project is not the main reason Third Place is closing, it added to the church’s financial struggles.

“That’s part of the affect of the city coming through and taking this building,” Reese said. “We have to be able to pay rent in another facility now in addition, where as this was one facility for us.”

The church used Third Place as a Sunday morning children’s center but now will have to rent extra rooms at the Stillwater Community Center, where it is relocating.

Reese said the ensuing construction of the project would have closed Third Place anyway.

Third Place was the project of church member J.D. Bump and was designed to be a mission outreach.

“The vision behind it was to provide a “third” place literally, somewhere else besides your home or your place of work for people to go and to develop relationships, maybe find answers for life – a safe environment to provide for people,” Reese said. “ And the other huge motivation and thing that we wanted to support through Third Place was social justice issues in the community.”

Schaefer said Third Place hosted food drives, clothing drives, including a coat drive a few winters ago, and art shows so students could display their work.

“It was developed completely to serve people, serve the community, and that’s why the church hasn’t minded for all these years for money to go to it, instead of to things ministry wise through the church, and would probably continue to keep [Third Place] going if it weren’t in such a place that just the budget can’t support it at this point,” Reese said.

Closing the coffee shop was hard decision that the church, especially its eldership, had sought to avoid, Schaefer said.

Schaefer and Reese said the church wasn’t paying its staff members, such as full-time pastors, full-time children leaders and worship leaders, so more money could go to Third Place and its workers.

Eldership members donated all they could from their personal savings accounts, and it still wasn’t enough to open the doors in August.

“It had to come to that for us because we were so invested in the ministry of the Third Place and we did not want the doors to close,” Schaefer said. “So it really had to come to putting in our personal money and when we were out of money, then we were done.”

Schaefer’s eyes were teary as she explained why Third Place had to close and what the eldership had sacrificed.

While the café did support and promote social issues, such as The Invisible Children of Uganda, financial burdens left the church’s vision unfulfilled, Reese said.

“We wanted it to really get into the needy situations of the community and do something about it,” Reese said. “And when finances have continuously kept that from happening, we need to do something different to make that a realization.”

White said that although she loves Third Place, she agrees with the church’s decision to close.

“I don’t know how many students went there all the time that didn’t realize the purpose of the coffee shop to begin with,” White said. “So in a way, it’s sad that Mosaic doesn’t want to fund it anymore, but I would say that is almost irresponsible for them to continue because it wasn’t meeting what they originally designed it to do, even though it was an amazing place.”

Reese said Third Place isn’t closing for good, but it might not reopen as a coffee shop.

“We don’t know what’s it’s going to look like, but we’re dreaming really big right now and know we have figure out a different way to make it work financially,” Reese said. “The money isn’t important as far as making a profit, but the money is important as far as offering the right vehicle to do what it is that we passionately feel like the Third Place is supposed to do in this community.”

Reese and Schaefer said even though Third Places doors are closed, the vision still lives in their hearts and they are proud of what Third Place was.