Built in 1834, the log-built Haas Church was shared by Reformed Presbyterian and Lutheran congregations because building materials were costly and families could not afford time away from their farms. The community likely also used the structure seasonally as a school. Nathaniel Wilson, regarded as Catawba County's founding father, led the process to separate from Lincoln County in 1842 because the physical distance to the county seat of Lincolnton skewed fair representation in local government, and he is buried here. In the years after the Civil War, the Lutheran congregation left Haas Church to establish St. James Church down the road, while other congregants joined Grace Church or St. Paul's and still others moved farther west. By 1894, after years of neglect, the building had collapsed, and physical evidence suggests it stood on the knoll in front of this site. A deed from George Haas to David Haas and George Ward in 1834 said it was to be used to encourage the building of a house of public worship so that the Gospel might be preached by ministers of every denomination.