Palmer Divide Research

Gwillimville church site (1893)

ChurchesHistoric or vanishedEl Paso County

What we know

The Welsh community's church, dedicated in 1893 by Chancellor Buchtel of Denver University and Elder Rader of Pueblo; services had been held in the schoolhouse until then. It stood on land given by J. J. Pettigrew. In 1979 only 'the crumbling stone foundation of the church' was 'barely visible in the grass' (von Ahlefeldt pp. 42-45). Whether anything survives today is not known.

Where it was

'Built on the northwest corner of (Highway) 105 and Highway 83' (Lucille Lavelett, letter of March 15, 1985, quoted by Rob Carrigan, 2015 and 2020); PLHS also puts it 'at Highways 105 and 83'. Placed just inside that corner of the junction in OpenStreetMap; the corner itself rests on Lavelett alone. Good to a few hundred feet.

Placed from a written description, such as a land section, a distance from a landmark or an old survey note.

See it on the map

Sources

Sources are named in the text above. Numbers such as S-0080 refer to our source list. Most newspaper quotations were read in the Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection. Long quotations from recent books are shortened here.

Know more about Gwillimville church site (1893)?

Corrections, family stories, photographs, deeds, letters and maps are all welcome. Messages and files come to Michael Christensen privately; nothing appears on the site until it has been checked, and you'll be credited the way you ask.