A Faithful Congregation

By ANNE DYNI

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When settlement of the Left Hand Valley began in the 1860s, homesteaders were isolated from one another as they proved up their land. They soon organized religious, fraternal, and educational groups which met in private homes.

In 1870, five years before the town of Niwot was platted, followers of the United Brethren faith established what the Colorado Business Directory called “The Left Hand United Brethren Church.”

Although they had no sanctuary, the congregation gathered for services in the tiny schoolhouse on the Dan Burch property whenever a traveling minister came through the area. They continued meeting there until the school board deemed it inappropriate to hold religious services in a public building. Their dilemma was solved, however, when parishioner Henry Hornbaker purchased the building and leased it back to the Brethren.

Weary of relying on others’ generosity, the rapidly expanding congregation began a pledge drive to construct a church. Ninety-six donors stepped forward to cover building expenses, and the Alvah Dodd family donated a portion of its land north of the railroad tracks and the new town of Niwot. Two hundred parishioners and friends gathered for its dedication on April 3, 1892. No longer dependent on occasional visits by circuit riders, they could now hire their own pastor and house him in the adjoining parsonage.

Once the church building was moved to the corner of Franklin and Third Avenue in 1912, many parishioners could conveniently walk to church. When Amy Cushman tried to imagine her father Charles Sherman and Bud Tucker moving the heavy frame building with a team of horses, she concluded that “they must have skidded it.” 

Tragedy struck when the church caught fire in 1951. Thwarted by the inner space created when a brick veneer was added to the original frame building, firemen were unable to direct water to the flames inside. Although the building was a total loss, parishioners managed to salvage the organ, a piano and the chancel pews, all of which sustained damage.

Within a year, the members, then numbering 172, rebuilt the church. But another change was just around the corner. The United Brethren Church, which had already merged with the Evangelical Church in 1946, merged again in 1968 with the Methodist Church. By 1970, the Niwot congregation had sold its church building and moved to 7405 Lookout Road where the church remains today.

On Oct. 3, 2010, the Niwot United Methodist Church will commemorate the 140 years since the first congregation met in the tiny schoolhouse on Dan Burch’s farm.  Bishop Elaine Stanovsky of the Rocky Mountain Conference will give the message.

Photo courtesy of the Niwot Historical Society
The United Brethren church with its classic New England architecture stood in stark contrast to the simpler farmsteads around it. But its white facade was somewhat muted in the shade of cottonwoods growing along nearby Caywood Ditch.