In 1879 a Methodist-Episcopal group bought a building that was originally constructed as a billiard and liquor saloon and described as:
“A frame building forty feet in length and twenty feet in width, one twelve-foot story, built by said Laird Ross and now occupied for school purposes in the said village of Salina, situate on land on the north side of Gold Run.”
The structure was in need of more frequent repairs as the years went by, and in 1902 it was decided that Salina should have a traditional church building. Henry Meyring donated the land to the east of the old church, a portion of his unpatented Emma mining claim. (Emma was the name of Mrs. Caroline Meyring’s sister and of a daughter.) Caroline and Henry spearheaded the effort to raise money for a building fund. The townspeople held socials and went to Boulder in search of donations, and as the money came in the church was built. On August 21, 1902, the Rocky Mountain News reported that the church was constructed at a cost of six hundred dollars and was waiting to be dedicated by the pastor, Rev. Allson Brown from Canada.
Over the next forty years, little church news was reported, and many of the local weddings and funerals were actually held in Boulder. The 1904 directory listed it as a Union Church with no pastor, and various people from would hold “lectures” there. By 1908 it was also used as Precinct No. 17’s polling place. After 1910, there appears to have been an increased interest in the church, possibly due to the efforts of Mr. Murried who managed the Sunday school. Under him the school “made great progress” and at Easter 1914 it was in “a flourishing condition.” But when he graduated from the University of Colorado in the spring, he returned to his home in Grand Junction, and once again the newspapers rarely reported any happenings at the church.
In 1917, Henry Meyring deeded a one-half interest in the Emma mine to each of his sons, Archie and Ernest. Church membership decreased during the years between the World Wars, and the building deteriorated. Ernest, at least, believed that his deed for the Emma mine included the church building, and in 1945 he declared that he had “attained authority in his name to transfer said church,” and sold “the original church which once served the community of Salina and now since being disused” to E. W. Grove to be used as a mining office. For the next few years, Sunday School classes met in the Crisman, Wall Street, and Salina schoolhouses. On July 29, 1948, Grove sold the building to Ode P. Pherson a Boulder man who worked at various mines in Wall Street and Copper Rock, and managed the Logan Mill near Crisman. He probably used the old church building for a while before he purchased it, even though recorded deeds show that he bought and sold it on the same date.
It was an exciting day when Mary Morgan, Frank Wilcox, and Reece Fischer served as Trustees, and acquired the church on July 29, 1948. “The Little Church in the Pines” was in a sad state of disrepair, but the locals were enthusiastic and felt that anything had to be better than holding Sunday morning services at the Salina Schoolhouse, in the mess left by a Saturday night party. On October 31, 1948, twelve people from six different religious denominations established an organized church.
The interior looks much the same as it did in 1902, with one very elegant addition. In 1949, the Loveland Presbyterian Church donated an antique organ, a history of which was written by Blanche Krouskop:
“My father, Dr. Frank L. Marshall, had the organ made over to suit his needs, he being a very fine organist, before it was sent to my childhood home in Greenville, Illinois when I was nine years old, that was sixty-five years ago [1884]…. When my church was organized in Loveland, Colorado [in 1905], and was really needing a musical instrument, my father sent it out to the church with the stipulation that it was to be used in church work.”
(Text and information provided by M.M Anderson from her book "The Mining Camps: Salina & Summerville") (
visit link)