Hope Lutheran Church

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, July 25, 2025

1. Hope Lutheran Church Marker

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From the National Register Nomination prepared by Teresa A. Walker, 3/1977:
Designed by the then current pastor, the Reverend J. Reininga, the exterior is composed of handmade concrete blocks. The only ornamentation is supplied by brick quoins on the corners of the building and the tower. The church measures thirty-five by seventy-five feet. The church has a cross-gabled roof,

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, July 25, 2025

2. Hope Lutheran Church Marker

The marker is mounted at eye level near the southeast corner of church, facing 3rd Street.

and there is a brick chimney at the west end.
The most notable exterior feature is the tower which, soaring to a height of ninety-six feet above the ground, is visible for miles in every direction. Constructed of the same blocks as the rest of the church, it has a small circular stained-glass window immediately above the main entrance. The belfry, enclosed by bars, contains the original church bell hung in 1917, which is still in use. The belfry has a small cross-gabled roof highlighted by an ornamental design reminiscent of a trefoil and is topped by a simple cross.
There are fourteen stained-glass windows in the church. On the east facade there are two long rectangular windows arid a third square one immediately above the entrance. On both the north and south sides are found three rectangular stained-glass windows and a large stained-glass window made up of three rectangular panels. This large window portrays a Biblical scene. Above this large and striking picture there is a small horizontal rectangular window also made of stained glass. The interior, which is very plain, is highlighted by its altar which was designed and carved by

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, July 25, 2025

3. Hope Lutheran Church Cornerstone

Evangelical Luther’n
Hope Congregation
Erected 1917

Pastor Reininga. With its eleven ornate spires, Gothic arch, and life-size figure of Christ, it is the focal point of the entire sanctuary.
The Hope Lutheran Church is one of the oldest Lutheran congregations in Colorado. In 1870 a group of 367 settlers came west from Chicago and settled in the fertile Wet Mountain Valley high in the central Sangre de Cristo Mountains. They were interested in settling on land suitable for agriculture, as the colony's leader was Captain Carl Wulsten, a civil engineer and a specialist in agriculture. The new settlers located in Westcliffe. Since they had determined to be self-sufficient, various items such as a small flour mill had been brought along. It wasn't until 1872 that the Reverend J. Hilgendorf, a Lutheran pastor from Nebraska, was prevailed upon to come west by Mrs. Gottleib Ograske, one of the leaders among the settlers.
Reverend Hilgendorf formed one of the first Lutheran congregations in Colorado. The original church, nothing more than a simple shelter made from aspen poles, was built about seven miles west of town. The current church, the fourth to be occupied by the congregation was designed

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, July 25, 2025

4. Hope Lutheran Church Sign

and built in 1917 by the then pastor, the Reverend John Reininga.
In addition to providing a church school which in some years — e.g. 1882 — also served as the community school, the church was, from the early 1880s, the only formalized place in some distance for marriages and burials. With the decline of the mining industry in the 1890s, the emphasis of the county's activities began to shift toward agriculture. Hope Lutheran Church became an increasingly important focal point for the tiny community of Westcliffe in the harsh economic times that followed. In a very real sense, it can be said that it was the importance of the church which resulted in the town being named the county seat of Custer County in 1923.

Excerpt:  Designed and built in 1917 by its pastor John Reininga, the church houses one of the oldest Lutheran congregations in Colorado.

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, July 25, 2025

5. Hope Lutheran Church (east/front elevation)

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, July 25, 2025

6. Hope Lutheran Church (south elevation)

Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, July 25, 2025

7. Hope Lutheran Church (southeast elevation)