In this ongoing series, we feature a piece from our Museum Director, Billie DeLancey, originally published in The Johnstown Breeze on November 28, 2024. Enjoy this look back, and keep an eye on the paper for the newest stories shaping our community.
The children who lived at or in the vicinity of Elwell walked, bicycled, or rode a horse to White Hall, a small country schoolhouse situated about a mile south of Elwell on CR13 on the Whitehall farm. The early country schools also served as places to gather and worship on Sundays before the first churches were established in the area.
In the fall of 1894, Reverend Cora May Dilley’s Evangelical United Brethren (EUB) congregation at White Hall was so inspired by her work and her sermons, they decided to build the first church in the district at Elwell.
The stones for the foundation were dug from the hills northwest of Berthoud, and local farmers donated the use of their four-horse teams and wagons to haul the stones to the church site. The labor to build the church was donated by the White Hall congregation. Reverend Dilley stayed in a cook car and was on the job during most of the construction. Upon completion, the church was named Dilley Chapel in Cora Dilley’s honor.
In March 1904, the Dilley Chapel burned down. Services were held in the hall over the J. W. Purvis store at Elwell during the reconstruction. It was rebuilt and completed the following spring, and in 1927, the building was physically moved into Johnstown at the northwest corner of Charlotte St. and Greeley Ave.
Professional movers from Denver managed the project. In the winter of 1926-27, the basement was dug for the church while the ground was still frozen, and dynamite was used to loosen the ground. The church was cut into two sections for the move. The front part, or sanctuary, was moved first and the Sunday School section followed.
Once moved, the original frame building was bricked and a parsonage was built beside it. The EUB Church continued services in this new location. It was later sold to Saint John the Baptist Catholic Church, and in 2018 it was sold to a private owner.
Cora Dilley’s remains were exhumed in 1939 from her original burial location on the south side of the chapel and reburied inside the Elwell Cemetery, which had been established in the early 1900s behind the Dilley Chapel.
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Source: Excerpted, in part, from A Tribute To Johnstown, Rebecca S. Healy, 1977