Pilgrim Holiness Church (Arthur, Nebraska) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Pilgrim Holiness Church
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View from the southwest
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 Location in Nebraska
Location in the United States
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| Location | Northwest corner of Cedar and Heath Streets, Arthur, Nebraska |
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| Built | 1928 |
| NRHP reference No. | 79001434 |
| Added to NRHP | June 18, 1979 |
The Pilgrim Holiness Church is a special building in Arthur, Nebraska. People also call it the Baled Hay Church or the Baled Straw Church. It was built in 1928. What makes it unique is how it was made: it was built using baled rye straw!
Back then, in that area, it was hard to find or afford regular building materials. Because of its unusual way of being built, and its connection to the history of the Nebraska Sandhills, this church is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This means it's an important historical site.
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Building with Hay Bales
Imagine building a house out of giant blocks of hay! That's what happened with the Pilgrim Holiness Church. Early settlers in the Nebraska prairies didn't have many trees for wood. This meant they had to find other materials nearby.
In some parts of Nebraska, people built dugouts (homes dug into the ground) or sod houses (homes made from blocks of grass and soil). But in the Sandhills, the soil wasn't good for making sod houses. Also, there were no railroad lines to Arthur County, so bringing in wood or bricks was very expensive.
Hay Balers and Early Straw Buildings
The machine that bales hay (makes it into tight blocks) was invented a long time ago, in the 1850s. By the 1890s, these machines were used a lot. The first time someone built with hay bales in Nebraska was a schoolhouse around 1896. But cows ate it because it wasn't protected!
Between 1896 and 1945, about 70 buildings were made from straw bales in the Sandhills. These included houses, farm buildings, churches, schools, and even stores. In 1990, nine of these straw-bale buildings were still standing in Arthur and Logan Counties.
The Pilgrim Holiness Church Story
In 1927, a group of people from the Congregational church in Arthur decided they wanted to build a church. They started building it the next year, in 1928. They stacked baled hay to make the walls, which were 2 feet (about 60 centimeters) thick!
Today, the outside of the church is covered with stucco, and the inside has plaster. But during some repairs in 1976, workers found that it was originally covered on both sides with a special "gumbo mud" from the area.
A Unique Church
The Pilgrim Holiness Church is the oldest known church in North America built with straw bales. It's one of only three such churches known to exist today. The other two are a church built in 1954 in Canada and another built in 2007 in California.
Regular church services aren't held here anymore. The Arthur County Historical Society now owns and takes care of the building. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 because it's such a special and historic building.
Arthur County's Early Days
Arthur County is part of the Nebraska Sandhills. This area has sand dunes that are covered and held in place by grass. Rain easily soaks into the sandy soil, filling up underground water sources. This creates hundreds of permanent lakes. However, the sandy soil isn't good for growing crops. So, the area is mostly used for raising cattle.
Homesteading in the Sandhills
Many parts of eastern Nebraska were settled because of the 1862 Homestead Act. This law let settlers get 160 acres (about 65 hectares) of government land for a small fee. But in the Sandhills, 160 acres wasn't enough land to support a family. So, large cattle ranches often formed. Ranchers would use the homestead laws to claim land around lakes and streams for their cattle.
Later, the 1904 Kinkaid Act allowed homesteaders in 37 western Nebraska counties to claim a much larger piece of land: 640 acres (about 260 hectares). This, along with a forest reserve opening in 1911, caused the population in what is now Arthur County to grow very quickly.
Arthur County itself was created by Nebraska's government in 1912-1913. The town of Arthur became the county seat (the main town) in 1913. By 1920, the county had 1,412 people. This was a big jump from 1890, when the area (which was then part of Logan and Arthur counties) only had 91 people.
