Buxton in Bloom

We are a historic church now functioning as a rural cultural center. Visit our website www.HistoricGrueChurch.com for more information.

Our mission is to preserve the North Dakota pioneer prairie church (and final resting place of world-famous economist, Mancur Olson Jr.) for use as a regional cultural and social center. Any donation, even twenty or thirty dollars and beyond, is valuable. If you don't donate, it would be great if you could share the fundraiser to help spread the word.

The Historic Grue Church North Dakota's fundraising goal is to preserve and transform the Norwegian Grue Evangelical Lutheran Church structure in Traill County, North Dakota. It will become an independent center celebrating the community's heritage and culture while retaining its sacred space architecture.

Our plan is to upgrade the electrical and renew the pressed metal ceiling and walls as our next steps in early 2025.

A larger phased restoration and adaptive reuse plan will follow. Recent donations have supported a new roof in 2022 and a 2023 exterior paint job. The historic stained glass window repair is in progress through a grant from AIAS Freedom by Design Community Service with the help of NDSU architecture students.

Friends and families of the church descendants, community members, preservationists and advocates for rural church restorations and adaptations, historians, genealogists, Norwegian-Americans, friends from Grue Church in Norway, organizations and interested donors are invited to contribute. Funding from North Dakota Council on the Arts and American Scandinavian Foundation, Sacred Places, North Dakota State Historical Society has helped us with cultural programming and structural work. We are actively seeking an array of funding sources.

2025 is the bicentennial celebration of the first Norwegian emigrants arriving in North America and our 2025 summer Lefse & Lemonade event in June will be highlighting this special year. A gift in 2025 is especially significant.

Historic Grue Church (formed in 2020) is a subsidiary of Buxton in Bloom non-profit (established 2008). It is separate from Grue Church Cemetery Committee, with no co-mingling of funds with either area. 

The Historic Grue Church is its own entity. Please join us in saving and transforming this beautiful structure.

Contributions to "Buxton in Bloom/Historic Grue Church" are tax deductible and can be made directly on this site or be mailed directly to Buxton in Bloom/Historic Grue Church at the following address:

​Buxton in Bloom/Historic Grue Church

% First State Bank

423 Broadway (PO Box 68)

Buxton ND 58218

http://www.firststatebanks.com

https://www.HistoricGrueChurch.org

https://www.gofundme.com/f/historic-grue-church-north-dakota

​501(c)(3) EIN 26-0108241

History of Grue Church

On March 17, 1879, sixty-three people met at the home of Knut Rauk to form the Norwegian Grue Evangelical Lutheran Congregation. For the next twelve years, they met in various private homes and schools until December 19, 1891, when Jakob Evanson Fevold sold a portion a quarter of a section in Stavanger Township to the congregation. The building was built by Jorgen Faleide and opened in 1891. More information coming...........

Photograph by Sharon Watson