Rebuilding The Past

In 2015, the Henrytown Lutheran Church was completely destroyed due to an accidental fire. This southern Minnesota church was first constructed in the late 1800s. The congregation has since rebuilt after the fire, but the white-steepled building now only exists in photos and memories. 

A scale model of the building was commissioned by a former member and will be donated to the church in the next few weeks. Working from only a handful of source images, a rough digital version was created to assist in the detective work of rebuilding the structure without the original blueprints. The model was further refined in CAD, laser-cut, and finished in my workshop.

Recreating lost historic architecture in miniature has unique challenges, but it was such a fun and meaningful project to bring back a small part of history.