1860 - Kreutz Creek German Reformed Evangelical Luthern Church - Hellam, PA - Dated Buildings and Cornerstones on Waymarking.com

This church in the 19th century was known as the Kreutz Creek German Reformed Evangelical Luthern Church and was built in 1860. It looks as much like a school house than a church. Today it is a Presbyterian church and known as Kreutz Creek Presbyterian Church. Back in the old days one could pull off of Lincoln Highway, travel down a small dirt road to get to this church. Since then, the Highway has been widened, and that stretch of the Lincoln Highway (about 50 yards away) is called Rt. 30 and is HUGE!. The entrance has been eliminated so this church has a weird, out of the way road leading to it off of Market Street, also known as Lincoln Highway. It feels like a cul-de-sac, and for the most part it is.

Made entirely of gorgeous red brick, it has five windows in front and a very large front door. Over the front door is a piece of white stone which bears the church's original name and the erection date. Considering the huge German population here and the wave of immigrants that settled here from Germany, this church's existence is certainly no surprise.

Above the date stone is a large window with side lights and a beautiful fan light on top. The brick is nicely off set by white shutters. Rising above the A-frame roof, slightly off the front is a beautiful bell tower with a solid bottom and an open, octagonal-cupola structure featuring the bell. Atop the cupola is a copper-like roof, fitted on top of the octagonal structure beneath it which comes to a point like a hat and gives rise to a weathervane, with a golden orb/sphere slightly beneath it. These old, more traditional type of country-style bell towers are very prevalent in Hellam/Hallam and in York as well.Below has been modified to accept a ramp for handicapped worshippers.

There is a smaller, similar but more recent structure off to the side which is presumable some kind of school associated with the church. To the left, of the unpaved, gray gravel road is a single modernish residence with parking dogs which scared the cr@p out of me! I was disappointed to find no mention of this church is the various Lincoln HIghway books. The church was constructed a full 60 years before the construction of the highway and by the time the books were written, the "exit" had long been abandoned.

The Kreutz Creek Valley Preservation Society, located in Hellam Township within Hallam Borough, lists this church and several others on its page. This area is no longer called Kreutz Creek, but Hellam. The names and bounderies around these parts are all very confusing, even to locals who cannot agree.

Address
85 Old Church Lane
Hellam, PA 17406

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