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History: Lutheranism thrived way up north in the cold climes of Scandinavia. Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark were already looking for a religious change and therefore embraced the German Augustinian friar Martin Luther and his beliefs. In the mid-eighteenth century, Scandinavian settlers in the U.S. tended to end up in the Midwest, and they thrived, accounting for over ten percent of the Lutheran population residing in the U.S.

In 1884, Reverend P.J. Berg, a Lutheran minister, was the dinner guest of several Swede families, who hoped he could help found a Leadville church. And so it was, when a lot on the corner of East 8th and Hemlock streets was cleared for a new church in late July of 1888. Although the cornerstone was laid for the First Evangelical Lutheran Church of Leadville that August, due to the late arrival of the stained glass and a shortage of building funds, the church was not opened until the next summer. Within a month, the Swedes and Norwegians in the congregation were quarreling. Originally, the church was meant to house the two separate nationalities, but a letter to the editor of the Herald Democrat (July 28, 1889) from the Trustees of the Scandinavian Lutheran Immanuel Lutheran Church, said they felt they were being mistreated and not allowed into the church by the Norwegian sect.

Leadville Norwegians were proud of their homeland gathering annually on May 17 to celebrate their split from Sweden in the 1830's. The day, to them, was like the Fourth of July to Americans. But it only exacerbated the local problems.

Things came to a head in 1891 when the two Lutheran groups both attempted to use the church for their Sunday School classes. Sticks and boards were brought out in anger, and words were tossed around "in a most un-Christian-like manner", according to a witness. Tensions at last eased with the conciliatory efforts of several reverends, as well as the departure of many Norwegian families from town due to hard times, and most importantly, official independence of Norway from Sweden in 1905. Antagonism between the neighbors finally diminished.

In the 1960's, the A-frame Lutheran church was moved from Climax Mine to its present location on the corner of West 8th and James Streets. The congregation followed. The church was then occupied by the Baptists until they had a new one built and again the congregation followed. In the late 1970's, a flamboyant man named "Brian Shepherd" bought the church, turned it into a dance studio and painted the exterior pink. Since then the local citizens have called it the Pink Church. Neighborhood residents remember "Brian Shepherd" dancing in the streets in a tutu. In 1981, the Leadville Police raided the building. What they found were 25 "pot" plants.

In 1994, Detlef Hoffmann and wife Christine bought the church with the intent of restoration some day.

301 E. 8th Ave. Leadville, CO 80461

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