The First Years

In 1955, the year the Salk vaccine defeated polio, the Dodgers finally won the World Series and Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus, a congenial fellow named Kingsley Hawthorne spent August going from new house to new house in the fast growing neighborhood of Harvey Park in southwest Denver. “King” Hawthorne was not selling vacuum cleaners or insurance; he was selling a new Congregational Church for the community, and he was a very convincing salesman.

Many of the men in the neighborhood were veterans, and they found a special bond in Rev. Hawthorne’s World War II service (he served as an Army chaplain and was twice decorated for valor in action).  Even his Maine roots recommended him to the Eastern transplants among Harvey Park’s new residents. Those who remember his knocking on their doors say that he seemed to “hit it off” with everyone. That September, a Sunday afternoon service dedicated a small brick house at 2508 S. Zurich Court as parsonage for the new Christ Congregational Church, with the men of the church participating in the program along with church notables from the area, and the women serving the tea and refreshments.

Christ Church (Congregational) was a mission effort of the The Board of Home Missions of the Congregational Christian Churches and the Colorado Congregational Conference. The Board bought a square block of land at Sheridan Boulevard and Harvard, hired Kingsley Hawthorne to start a church and purchase the house, which was to serve as home for him and his family and as church meeting place. The Park Hill Congregational Church assisted in the organization and “mothering” of the new church.

Harvey Park in 1955 was a neighborhood with a rural feel that appealed to young families. Every family was new, nearly everyone had young children, and many liked the idea of a new Congregational church for their families.

Christ Congregational Church was an already busy congregation in these first months.  The first newsletter, The Call brimmed with church news -- a family night with movies, children’s parties, a junior high record hop, and a women’s fellowship. More and more newcomers to services were listed. Barbara Nuce Crouch was appointed Minister of Music, and an unpaid secretary was sought.

The congregation worshipped in the parsonage basement. It was a bare place, fitted out with borrowed and donated furnishings. Army and Navy hymnals were borrowed from Lowry Air Force Base. A communion service set came from one parishioner, another crafted a cross from rough walnut and still others a sort of stained glass window. The music program flourished in spite of cramped quarters. Church school classes filled the parsonage and overflowed into nearby homes.

On January 15, 1956, Christ Congregational Church officially organized with 41 members. They elected officers and a building committee. Three choirs were organized, two for children and one for adults. An adult Bible study group met on Sunday evenings in parish homes. On April 29, Rev. Kingsley Hawthorne was installed and the church was recognized at a special service conducted by the Denver Association of Congregational Churches. After a “ Mission for Members” door-to-door campaign in May, conducted by 20 church men, more new members joined the church. The Chancel Choir held a party and Vacation Church School held a two week session. Children’s Day services in early June filled the meeting house with 98 present, followed by a Genessee Mountain outing with 28 families participating.

On June 24, 1956 the church was incorporated, the final official step in the creation of Christ Congregational Church.  The church charter was signed by 100 members. The new congregation hummed with activity. Children’s Choir mothers formed a group to sew robes for the two children’s choirs. There was a Cradle Roll party for babies and a sports program for boys on Saturday morning, with basketball and football. The Kupples Klub had a square dance. A group of church men built 24 new chairs for the 3 rd and 4 th grade Church School Class, which was meeting in a basement and had been using boxes for seats.

But the big thrust of the autumn of 1956 was the Building Fund Drive. Over 70% of the membership was at the kickoff dinner at Brentwood Methodist Church on September 21 to see the architect’s model for the new building. The fund drive following raised more than $20,000.                                                                                             

On Sunday , December 16, 1956 at high noon, the Crusader choir in their new robes and the Carol choir led the procession from the meeting house to the site. They were followed by members of the Chancel Choir and the congregation…150 men, women and children were present, who “set our spades in the good earth of our church site and turned over the ground ‘In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.’”

The final construction loan plan required a note to Central Bank and Trust in the amount of $13,500. Twenty-seven church families signed personal guarantees to this note in the amount of $500 (“None of us had any money,” one of the signers reminisced recently, “we were young and didn’t know much, but we wanted to have a church.”)

Christ Congregational Church ended 1956 with 127 members. Kingsley Hawthorne, according to the church’s first annual report, had made 1,002 pastoral calls. The church school had 109 registered pupils. Fifty-nine families pledged; more than 70% of the pledges were for less than $4 per week. The year’s pledge and offering income was about $5,000, which was supplemented by $6,000 in aid from National and State Societies of the Church. This aid roughly equaled the minister’s salary and living expenses, including the parsonage mortgage payments of $75.57 per month.

The church’s "first birthday party” was held in January 1957 at Brentwood Methodist Church, with supper prepared by the Methodist Women. As the church building went up, membership and programs continued to grow. Worship services and church school classes moved to nearby Doull Elementary school in March 1957, and in June thirteen young people were confirmed there.

The first service in the new building was held on July 28, 1957. The building was dedicated on September 22, 1957. Two worship services and one session of church school were held each Sunday in the new facility. The Board of Christian Education sponsored what developed into an annual church event, a September outing at La Foret with 120 attending. The choirs combined with the Sixth Avenue Congregational Church choir for a Sunday afternoon concert, the first for the new building. The Chancel choir also participated in the Southwest Denver Community Chorus - the combined choirs of Brentwood Methodist, Christ the King Lutheran, Harvey Park Baptist, and Christ Congregational. Forty-five children participated in the Children’s choir festival at St. John’s cathedral. Early in December the custom of “Hanging of the Greens” was instituted to decorate the church for Christmas. At the close of 1957, the busy church claimed a membership of 201. Still familiar names from these earliest years include Wilderson, Slivka, Leberer, Bodemann, Poynter, Spaar, Flannery, Tesch, McMullen, Conroy, Matuzscak, and Crouch.