Bethany Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church, Kimballton Iowa

Date added: December 29, 2024

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Iowa
Church

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The Bethany Church was first organized in 1890 before the Danish Lutheran Church split into two synods. Following that split, some of the original congregation left to establish a Grundtvigian congregation in Kimballton, while others remained and followed the pietistic synod. This congregation and that in Elk Horn were among the earliest Danish Lutheran churches in the area, and were the primary churches directly affected by the split. While the property was built four years after the actual split, it replaced the original church which had been built before the split and was struck by lightning and burned in 1898. The schism in the Lutheran Church was to influence not only the religious direction of the Danish settlement area's development, but also affected social and educational development well into the twentieth century. Of all the nine United Churches once extant in Shelby and Audubon counties, the Bethany Church is among the few to survive.

Nis P. Hjuler, who was also a founding member of the Bethany congregation, was born in 1864 in Sonder-Jutland, Denmark. He immigrated to the United States settling first in Seattle, Washington, before migrating to Audubon County in 1893. Hjuler was a carpenter and blacksmith by trade and was skilled in furniture making. In 1898 he helped build and finish the interior of the Bethany Church. The use of wainscoting and the decorative woodwork of the pulpit and pews can likely be attributed to Hjuler's skill and influence. It is not known if he was also responsible for the wood graining, but this was a decorative art common to the interiors of buildings in the Danish settlement area and executed by skilled Danish craftsmen.

Building Description

Situated on a hilltop 1 mile east and 1.5 miles north of Kimballton, the Bethany Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church is a one-story, T-shaped, frame building with a 1.5-story central entry tower and is similar in design to the other known Danish churches in Shelby and Audubon counties. The building has a gable front orientation facing west with an ell on the north side. The latter was added to the main core of the building in 1906 to serve as a schoolroom and was renovated in 1980-1981 on the interior and exterior including the modification of the original windows and doorway and the addition of a rear stairway entrance into the basement. The church is surrounded on the south, east, and north sides by a cemetery. A parsonage is situated directly west of the church and across the north-south gravel road.

The church building rises from a poured concrete basement foundation that was added to the structure in 1948. In adding the basement, the building was raised approximately 2' 6" but remains on its original location. Other modifications to the exterior of the church include the addition of shed-roofed wings to the sides of the entry tower to accommodate the basement entry in 1948. At the same time, the exterior tower entry door was modified from its original double door with a pointed-arched transom to a plain double door. These doors were replaced in 1981. A pointed-arched window in the tower above the entry was also covered over at that time. The remainder of the tower includes the original paired, pointed-arched louvers in the tower lantern and a metal-shingled flared spire roof. Decorative shingle siding original to the church construction is present on either side of the front facade adjacent to the tower. The four windows along the south side of the building are pointed-arched and original to the building; however, the original glass panes were replaced in 1953 with stained glass. Two shed-roofed additions were also made in 1948 on either side of the original apse but did not substantially alter the interior configuration of that apse. The only other recent modification has been the blowing of insulation into the walls.

The majority of the original exterior components remain intact including the wall cladding on the main core of the building, the corner boards and frieze boards, the boxed eaves, and the windows hoods and surrounds. Of the original windows, only the two in the ell addition on the north side have been modified. Furthermore, the additions to the tower entry and the apse are clad with compatible board widths and types.

The interior of the church has remained relatively intact since its construction and contains a significant component in the painted enamel wood graining on the pulpit, wainscoting, and window and door surrounds, and the original pews with decorative applied woodwork, all of which constitute a rare surviving example of these Danish decorative arts. The semi-circular altar rail is also original.

The few interior modifications include the removal of the original altarpiece, the lowering of the pulpit, and the covering of the upper walls and concave ceiling with elaborate pressed metal sheeting. The latter is an early 1900s modification and added a compatible decorative element to the church interior. Historic photographs indicate that the upper walls and ceiling appear to have been originally covered with diagonal wainscoting with painted borders and corner boards.