Kvindherred Lutheran Church, School and Cemetery
About this property
Our Savior's Kvindherred Lutheran Church is an Evangelical Lutheran Church in America congregation located near the town of Calamus in rural Clinton County, Iowa, United States. The church and former school buildings as well as the church cemetery were listed as an historic district on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. The congregation was established in 1861 by Norwegian immigrants from Hardanger Fjord who settled the area. The church was named after Kvinnherad Municipality in Norway, from where they had emigrated. Services were held in parishioner's homes and in the local public schools until their first church was built in 1865. A parochial school was established in 1863 and instruction was held in parishioner's homes for two years. John Johnson provided the land for the church, which he had purchased in 1853. His brother George provided the land for the cemetery in 1865. That same year, Kvindherred joined with a congregation near Marengo, Iowa, and another in Norway, Iowa, to form a single parish. Kvindherred bought 40 acres (16 ha) a 1⁄2 mile (0.80 km) west of the church on which to build a parsonage for the pastor who would serve all three locations. The house, no longer extant, was built in 1870. Because of growth in the congregation the present church was built in 1876. Sunday School classes were begun in 1891. The 1870 parsonage was sold in 1928 when the congregation bought a house in Calamus for the parsonage. Two years later Kvindherred called its own pastor, and services were held in the church weekly instead of on alternate Sundays. Services in Norwegian were also ended in 1930 because some members of the congregation did not know the language and pressure resulting from World War I for "foreign-born and users of a foreign language to use more readily the English language." Norwegian had been used exclusively until 1919 for worship and school when English was included. The congregation changed its name to Our Savior's Lutheran Church in 1946, which distanced it further from its Norwegian roots. The following year, discussions began about whether to remodel the church or to build a new one. A joint decision could not be made and 136 parishioners and the pastor formed Faith Lutheran congregation in Calamus in 1950. The current parsonage was built near the church in 1952. Faith and Our Savior entered into a cooperative ministry agreement in 1972 by which they would share a pastor. The two congregations are referred to jointly as the Calamus Lutheran Parish. The congregation initially belonged to the Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church until 1898 when it joined the United Norwegian Synod. The synod merged with the original Norwegian Synod and the Hauge Synod to form the Norwegian Lutheran Church of America (NLCA) in 1917. The NLCA changed its name to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in 1946, and ultimately merged into the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) in 1988.
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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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Questions about this property
When was Kvindherred Lutheran Church, School and Cemetery listed on the National Register?
Kvindherred Lutheran Church, School and Cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 14, 2000.
What type of historic resource is Kvindherred Lutheran Church, School and Cemetery?
Kvindherred Lutheran Church, School and Cemetery is classified as a district in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for Kvindherred Lutheran Church, School and Cemetery?
The period of significance for Kvindherred Lutheran Church, School and Cemetery is recorded as the listed era.
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