Great Bend Post
Dec 20, 2020

Faith at the 'cornerstone' of Great Bend’s newest event center

Posted Dec 20, 2020 1:00 PM
Corinthians Hill Event Center (Venue 1)
Corinthians Hill Event Center (Venue 1)

By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post

About 13 years ago, one of Debbie Deutsch’s friends asked her to decorate their daughter’s wedding. Shortly thereafter, Deutsch was in the wedding business. She was traveling from Great Bend to Colby, Kansas City, Wichita and all over to decorate for people’s weddings.

Deutsch recognized the market was changing and more venues were needed. Deutsch, who has over 40 years of interior design experience and operates Cornerstone Interiors in Great Bend, says it takes a good chunk of couples’ budgets to properly decorate a building or events center and turn it into something extraordinary for a wedding.

That is when Deutsch started researching what it would take to bring an events center to Great Bend.

"Seven years ago, I started investigating and checking resources," said Deutsch. "Two years ago for my birthday, I asked my husband to take me to an events center that I had been studying and talking to the architects that built the center in Oklahoma."

A realtor showed Deutsch and her husband a piece of property near Cheyenne Bottoms to create their events center and wedding venue.

"When we started looking for property here, it took every bit of two years to find something," Deutsch said.

Deutsch admits that she did not immediately fall in love with the piece of land but her husband did as an avid hunter. They would eventually purchase the property that Dr. William Slater had a house built on designed for a bed and breakfast. The property also included a shed that Deutsch and her crew have turned into Venue 1.

Great Bend’s newest events center officially opened this past June with their first wedding. The venue just north of Great Bend and Barton Community College on Northeast 20 Avenue is named Corinthians Hill Event Center LLC and overlooks the wetlands of Cheyenne Bottoms.

The name...well that comes from Deutsch’s faith, something that even started with her interior design company.

"Cornerstone Interiors is biblical also," said Deutsch. "Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of my life. I needed to come up with something for my wedding venue and the most popular bible verse happens to be First Corinthians 13, 4 and 8. So that's how Corinthians Hill became."

While the house can seat 100 guests for dinners or parties; Venue 1, or the shed, can host 150. Deutsch says the dirt work has started to construct a larger building to have the capability of hosting up to 400 guests.

Asked when the new building will be complete, Deutsch responded their first wedding in the new facility is April 17, 2021, “so the pressure is on.”

The bedrooms in the house are used as Deutsch’s design offices while the main floor is rented out.

Deutsch’s father was an international businessman, so she grew up living in a variety of zip codes. Graduating high school in Southern Florida and attending college in Kentucky, Deutsch’s father bought a business in Great Bend. When she came to visit, Deutsch met her husband.

Now as an established Great Bend resident, Deutsch says she is hopeful Corinthians Hill Event Center can draw people to the community to fill up restaurants, hotels and grow the economy.     

You can contact Corinthians Hill at 620-793-7921 and info@interiorsbycornerstone.com. View corinthianshilleventcenter.com.

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