CHRIST THE KING (1936)

At first, Franciscan priests from St. Elizabeth's in Denver traveled up Bear Creek Canyon to offer Masses in Evergreen's Episcopal chapel. Later, Monsignor John Moran of St. Joseph's in Golden tended to the Evergreen faithful, establishing Christ the King mission in 1924.

Shortly afterwards, George F. Cottrell donated a church site on the west side of the highway--a lovely, ponderosa pine-shaded site with the Evergreen Cemetery to the north and Dedisse Park to the south. With generous contributions from the John Vails, Edward Delehanty, Herbert Farrall, Joseph Little, Herbert White, and others, a rustic moss rock and log chapel was completed in 1935. John K. Monroe designed the structure, which was dedicated by Bishop Vehr in April 1936. Barry J. Wogan was assigned to Christ the King as its first pastor, followed in 1949 by John H. Kelly. Not until 1951, with the appointment of Joseph Bosch as the first resident pastor, did the little mountain town become independent of St. Joseph's in Golden.

George Greer and his family donated a rectory with a landscaped patio, while other parishioners helped construct a roadside shrine to St. Jude and an outdoor altar dedicated to Our Sorrowful Mother. Donald A. McMahon took a special interest, while serving as pastor, in gracing the picturesque church with fine art, including a life-sized Pieta fashioned of lead by Denver artist William Joseph. In 1956, Archbishop Vehr blessed a $75,000 parish hall, designed by architect/parishioner Frank W. Kullman, for the congregation of around 150 households.

Father Leo Blach, who became pastor in 1964, purchased seventeen acres of adjacent land in 1966. The following year, the parish sold its property across the road to the State Highway Department, which was widening Colorado 74 to accommodate the rapid growth transforming what had been a little town of 1,027 in 1950 to a city of 6,376 by 1980.

The first parish council, formed in 1968, hired John V. McCarthy Associates of Detroit to conduct a fund drive for a new church and education center. After pledges reached the $88,000 mark in 1970, ground was broken for a new church and parish hall designed by Seracuse and Lawler, a Denver architectural firm.

Archbishop Casey blessed the new $247,000 church on May 24, 1971. It seated 500 and had five lower-level classrooms. The old stone church was razed, having been outgrown by a parish that had come to number over 500 households. To reach his far-flung flock, Monsignor Robert F. Hoffman experimented with monthly service in "little parishes" scattered around the foothills.

Neverthless, the parish center remained in the multilevel, cantilevered complex built around the new rustic moss rock church. Surrounded by ponderosa trees, Christ the King's impressive parish plant is a beacon for high country Catholics.

John J. Murphy, the pastor, said in 1988 that Evergreen is now "a bedroom community, as the majority of its residents commute to Denver for work, shopping, and cultural events. But they find a hometown, full-service parish in Christ the King, which now cares for over 1,200 Catholic families in southwestern Jefferson County."