Hope Foursquare Church - 803 10TH AV

 Print Listing Historical Name - First Congregational Church; Old Park Church
Style - Late 19th and 20th Century Revivals/Tudor Revival; Late Victorian/Gothic Revival
Built Year - 1880-83; 1906-07
State ID - 5WL3741

Description - This Gothic Revival/Tudor Revival style church is an irregular-shaped, two-story brick structure with a three-tab asphalt shingle, front gabled roof. The roof is steeply pitched, characteristic of these styles and it has intersecting gables on the north elevation with fake half-timbering on the gable ends. Roof features include a parapet with castellation topped by stone caps. There is a wood cornice on the parapet on the northeast corner. It has a stone foundation and brick exterior. The main facade is broken into three bays and contains an off-centered entrance with the door to the north end of the east elevation. The one story, partial width porch has three gothic arches with rough-faced stone columns and concrete steps. The main porch connects with a smaller stairway up on the north end, which has a wood framed, gabled roof over it with wood supports and stone knee walls. It is facing north, and is located on the northeast corner of the building. Windows are multi-light, wood frame and have gothic arches and segmental arches. There are several stained glass windows, including a large multi-light stained glass window on the north elevation. It has decorative brick quoins on the sides, stone sills and a brick gothic arch. Some of the other windows also have stone sills and/or lintels. There is an octagonal turret with a wood top and decorative brickwork on the northeast corner and the octagonal southeast corner of the building also has decorative brickwork on the corners. There are brick quoins on the corners of the central bell tower, which also has a castellated roof line, and wood frame openings with gothic arches and stone sills.

Historical Background - This church was built for the First Congregational Church in 1906, enveloping the 1883 structure. The May 30, 1906 Greeley Tribune stated that “The building will be erected on the old site opposite the part, in fact, the old structure will form part of the new building. But so changed and improved will everything about it be that unless a person is thoroughly familiar with the old structure he will never be able to discover it as part of the detail of the new.” The new church was built because the congregation had outgrown their 1883 facility. The renovations, including the installation of a $3,000 pipe organ, were completed in 1907. The congregation continued to grow and built a second story addition over the south classroom in 1936, designed by T. Robert Wagner, an architect from Denver. This addition increased the capacity of the church to 700. Park Congregational Church occupied the building until they outgrew it in1955, when they decided to build a larger church. The Swedish Covenant Church purchased the building in May 1955 and occupied the building on March 1st 1956. They eventually changed their name to First Covenant Church. First Covenant Church remained in the building until September 1984, when they closed the church due to low parish enrollment and financial difficulties. The Foursquare church purchased the building in 1986, after having leased it in 1985.