Around Swedish America in 548 Days - Day 66

Day 66 - Center City

Center City, along with Lindstrom and Chisago City, was a hub of Swedish immigrant activity in Chisago County. “The Swedish Circle in Minnesota:” an enjoyable printed self-guided tour of Swedish American landmarks in Chisago County, is available at restaurants, motels, museums, and Chamber of Commerce offices.

Chisago Lake Lutheran Church (651-257-6300), a buff-colored brick building dating to the 1880s, may be the largest and finest rural church in Minnesota. It has been compared with the church in Madesjö Parish, Småland, a province in which many congregants have roots. This church has a lovely setting close to North Center Lake; a good viewing point is on U.S. Highway 8 near the Swedish Village Mall.

On May 12, 1854, the Reverend Erland Carisson of Chicago organized the congregation of one hundred members, holding the first meeting in a haymow. Its site is marked by a monument in the Chisago Lake Cemetery, east of the church. That summer, Carisson had a “meeting house” built for worship and a public school. Erik Norelius, then a twenty-year-old theological student, preached and taught there. He and his brother, Anders (Andrew), had left Sweden with the Peter Andersson group.

The first resident pastor arrived in the spring of 1855, and the following year a small frame church was begun on the location of the present church. In 1858 the church was the site for the organization of the Minnesota Conference of the Augustana Lutheran Church, an event marked by a large obelisk near the front of the sanctuary. Between 1868 and 1873, the membership of the congregation doubled from 400 to 800. By 1897, it increased to 1,495 adults and 806 children, the highest membership in the church’s history. A larger sanctuary was completed in 1882, but a bolt of lightning struck the steeple and ignited a fire that gutted the church. The present edifice, completed in 1889, is identical in size to the former church. This building is Romanesque style with round arched stained-glass windows. A soaring steeple, with clocks on each side above the belfry; is capped by a gold cross.

The sanctuary features a large raised, wood-canopied pulpit. The words Helig, Helig, Helig (Holy, Holy, Holy) appear on the altar under the statue of Christ. To commemorate the congregation’s 150th anniversary in 2004, the sanctuary was beautifully repainted by Eric Carlisle. He enhanced the church’s architectural characteristics, including the forty-foot-high ornate ceiling, curved altar alcove, and eight columns twenty-eight feet in height. The light-colored sanctuary now has gilded capitals on the Corinthian columns and stencils of twisting grape vines and intricate geometric patterns on the ceiling’s borders.

In the sanctuary’s narthex is a bronze casting of Reverend Erik Norelius by Paul Granlund and a display case of old Swedish-language books and church publications. Outside is a flagpole with a plaque in memory of the Swedes who organized the church, some of whom are buried in the cemetery to the east. Across the road and up on the hill is the parsonage.

In the Heritage Room in the parish building is a tapestry by Marjorie Pohlmann depicting the history of the Chisago Lake Lutheran congregation. The tapestry’s history-telling threads record the agrarian roots in the immigrants’ homeland, the sailing ships that brought them to the United States, the Civil War, the lightning that struck the church building in 1882 and the fire that resulted, the transformation from horse and buggy (or horse and sled) to automobiles and vans, and the metamorphosis from an agriculture-based economy to an industrial and urban one.

As a footnote, the wedding scene at the end of the film Grumpy Old Men, starring Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, and Ann-Margret, was filmed at this church.

Immediately south of the church on the east side of Summit Avenue is the Summit Avenue Historic District, a residential area overlooking North Center Lake. The lots were laid out in 1888 and the fine old residences constructed between 1882 and 1910. (The Chisago County Courthouse on Main Street is also on the National Register.)

Many of the frame houses were constructed by William Carlson, owner of the local lumberyard and the town’s carpenter and builder. (Carlson also created much of the woodwork in the Chisago Lake Lutheran Church.) The houses feature classical detailing, gable ornamentation, extensive use of windows, and front porches. The owners were Swedish merchants, tradesmen, politicians, retired farmers, and professionals, reflecting the growing prosperity of the area. The oldest houses are those nearest the church. A plaque near the Swedish Village Mall commemorates the founding of Center City. It reads: “On a nearby hillside Erik Ulrik Norberg spent the winter of 1850 before guiding a group of countrymen to Chisago Lake to establish Center City — the oldest permanent Swedish colony in Minnesota — a settlement immortalized by the Swedish author Vilhelm Moberg” Hassela, Sweden, is the sister city of Center City.