A moving company will very slowly transport the 1880 “Deutsch Evangelish St. Paul’s Kirche” for a distance of just under one-half of a mile to its new home in Santa Claus Park. It will join the newly-restored 1935 Santa Statue plus the Santa Claus Museum, founded by Holiday World matriarch Pat Koch, at the site of the original Santa Claus Park.

The church stands 70 feet tall (including steeple and weather vane). It will be moved with steeple and original church bell intact, along with the altar, a cast-iron wood stove, a Reed pump organ and its native poplar wood benches and pews. The church, which weighs approximately 50 tons, will roll on three sets of dollies pulled by a tractor truck.

Another historic building will join the church and statue at Santa Claus Park in another week. The original Santa Claus Post Office, built in 1856, will be moved in the same fashion from Holiday World, where it has served as a doll museum since the theme park opened in 1946. Additional background information is posted here.