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December 9, 1888: Spreading the word

Mike Madigan, Special to the News

Published November 26, 2008 at 2:55 a.m.

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Front page from December 9, 1888

Front page from December 9, 1888

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In addition to the city of Denver and the Rocky Mountain News, there is one other enduring endeavor celebrating its 150th anniversary in coming months - Trinity United Methodist Church, the pinkish-gray stone spire and landmark at 18th and Broadway.

On Aug. 2, 1859, minister William H. Goode and yet-to-be-ordained Jacob Adriance established the Auraria and Denver City Methodist Episcopal Mission, known today as Trinity Church.

Research doesn't show that the Rocky attended the first service. The congregation opened its first church at 14th and Lawrence in 1865. One of the earliest references in the newspaper, although there had to be earlier still, appears to be Dec. 9, 1888. What by then was known as Trinity Methodist Episcopal was preparing to christen its impressive Broadway church - and its New York-made organ, worthy of a full two-column ad in the Rocky inviting the city to the first concert for $1.50 per seat.

On Dec. 21 the paper reviewed the occasion on page 3:

FESTIVAL OPENING.

THE GREAT ORGAN IN TRINITY

METHODIST CHURCH.

"The first audience in the main auditorium of the Trinity Methodist Episcopal church assembled last evening and was composed of 1,500 of the representative citizens of Denver and surrounding towns. The occasion, it is hardly necessary to state, was the first opportunity to see the great organ and to listen to the most eminent musicians in the country."

The story went on about the organ - "46 feet across the front of the church, 19 feet deep and 35 feet high" - but with little mention of the new church in which it played.

The organ was indeed a showpiece. It still is. While only 108 of its 4,202 pipes are visible today, the remainder hidden behind an enclosure, it still thunders with heavenly sound. Its original cost was $30,000; after several restorations, the cost to replace it today is estimated at $2 million.

The church was designed by Robert Roeschlaub, Colorado's first licensed architect. The exterior and 184-foot tall corner steeple are entirely fashioned of rhyolite quarried in Castle Rock. In 1888, it was one of the tallest stone towers in the U.S.

100 years later

The Rocky gave Trinity United Methodist considerably more attention in 1988, when it celebrated its 100th anniversary. Terry Mattingly, the paper's "religion writer," wrote on page 10 Christmas morning:

"In a way, today's milestone also is a celebration that Trinity United Methodist is still here. The congregation membership slumped to near 1,000 in the early 1980s. Doom was in the air.

"But church leaders plan to announce today that membership has hit the 2,000 mark. Boom is in the air."

Religious offerings

An entire wing of Trinity Church no longer exists. It extended north on Broadway, twice as long as the original and still remaining structure. In a story on March 14, 1926, after the addition was dedicated, the Rocky stated that with the extension, Trinity "assumes a leading position in the Methodist denomination of the United States." In the same Sunday edition, the paper published its usual full page of

"NEWS OF DENVER CHURCH AND RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES."

It included a list of 67 sermons scheduled at churches that day. At Trinity, pastor Dr. Loren M. Edwards planned to address "The Foursquare Evangel" and "The Dark Hours."