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Norway Lutheran Church and Cemetery

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1907. 53rd St. N, west of 1st Ave. N, approximately 10 miles southwest of Denbigh
  • (Photograph by Steve C. Martens)

This unusual rural church is built of Denbigh sand bricks, a local building material no longer produced. The Denbigh Brick Plant, located one-half mile south of Denbigh, closed in 1917 in financial ruin. After firing, the yellowish bricks remained soft enough to carve into, but were strong enough to shape buildings that continue to stand after years of exposure to the harsh North Dakota elements. The Gothic Revival church has a bell tower in the center of the facade that rises sixty-five feet above the entrance. Large ornamental vergeboards fill gables on each side wall, and the roof soffits and pent eaves have unusual sawn single-bore brackets. There are twelve stained glass windows. A basement was added in 1929 to provide a fellowship area. There are two privies located along the north fence slightly to the west of the rear of the church. Both are wood-frame construction with wood siding and shed roofs. The cemetery across the road from the church was dedicated in 1886, the same year a log church (demolished) was constructed in the northeast corner of the cemetery.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Steve C. Martens and Ronald H. L. M. Ramsay
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Citation

Steve C. Martens and Ronald H. L. M. Ramsay, "Norway Lutheran Church and Cemetery", [Towner, North Dakota], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/ND-01-MH3.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of North Dakota

Buildings of North Dakota, Steve C. Martens and Ronald H. L. M. Ramsay. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2015, 123-123.

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