Danske Evangelist Lutheran Kirke of Lincoln County (Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church)

This Gothic architecture church was constructed in the late 1870s through the efforts of Danish immigrants to the Lincoln County, Kansas, area. The church's construction faced an initial delay owing to theological disagreements among congregants, but these were quickly resolved, and the building was completed by 1880 using local materials and labor. In its early decades, there were disagreements by congregants as to whether the primary language should be English or Danish, and this even led some members to form a short-lived breakaway congregation a mile away. Despite internal conflict and the hardships of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression, the church persisted through the decades and is still in operation today. The building was added to the National Historic Register in 1991 for its significance in Lincoln County's Danish history.

The Danske Evangelist Lutheran Kirke (Denmark Evangelical Lutheran Church) is located in Lincoln County, Kansas, in the unincorporated community of Denmark. The name came from the fact that in the 1870s, many of the early settlers of the area were Danish immigrants. These people, who often carried common Scandinavian surnames like Swensen, Christiansen, and Nielson, had already lived in the United States for some time, living in places like Iowa, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Illinois before coming to Kansas. According to the census, the population steadily increased between 1875 and 1885. As of 1875, the community already had a store, a blacksmith, a school, and its own post office, and it continued to grow from there. Considering that so many locals were members of the Lutheran Church, it made sense that a new church for the community was one of the next buildings planned for construction.

The cornerstone for the Danske Church was laid in 1875 on land donated from the homestead of Lars P. Nielsen. The construction materials came from the surrounding area: the limestone was quarried three miles west, the sand for the mortar came from nearby, and the lumber and shingles were bought from Ellsworth, Kansas, three miles away. Construction halted the following year owing to theological disagreements among the congregation. The church was conceived to serve Danish immigrants but also had a significant Swedish and Norwegian Lutheran population. When the former, also the majority, voted to consecrate the church in the Danish Synod, the latter groups withdrew their support. By 1878, however, construction resumed, with the church's disagreements apparently resolved, and the building was completed in 1880. Until 1881, when money was raised to purchase seating, the congregants brought their own pews or benches to services.

The disagreement between the church's founders was not the last, with a handful of others following in the congregation's early years. In 1880, Rev. Bekker organized an English-language Sunday school. Still, three years later, an effort by Rev. Christensen to switch the church to Danish-language-only operations saw the school disestablished. Some left the church in response, but Christensen's Danish Sunday school remained in operation until English was reinstated in 1920. The other schism took place in 1895 when some members split off to form the Free Mission Church one mile away, but this church was short-lived, apparently no longer existing by 1901.

Grant Township and the Denmark community boomed through the 1910s thanks to the expansion of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe railroad through the area. By 1920, they had their own community hall, lumber yard, barber shop, and grain elevators, among other amenities. While the community, like many other rural settlements across Kansas, suffered greatly from the Dust Bowl and Great Depression, seeing the loss of many businesses, the church persisted. It is still in operation today under the name Denmark Evangelical Lutheran Church, which it adopted in 1956. The building was added to the historic register in 1991 for its Gothic architectural style and significance in Lincoln County's Danish history.

Hagedorn-Krass, Martha. Danske Evangelist Lutheran Kirke - National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, National Parks Gallery. May 14th, 1991. Accessed November 18th, 2023. https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/242e4355-a54e-413f-b27d-a6a3863cb0ec.