Danevang, Wharton County
Danevang Community Hall (Danevang Forsamlingshus) The Danish community of Danevang (Danish Field) was founded in 1894, at the height of Danish emigration to the United States. The Dansk Folkesamfund (Danish Folk Society), organized in the Midwest in 1887 to preserve Danish culture, language and religion, arranged for land for a settlement here and contacted Danes living in the northern and midwestern United States to establish a colony in Texas. After the first colonists arrived, the society helped fund a building the community could use as a gathering place. Completed in 1895, the Danevang Community Hall (Forsamlingshus) later was donated by the society to the community, along with 45 acres of land. Until the first church building was constructed about 1908, the community hall served as both church and assembly space, and provided living quarters for the Danish Lutheran pastor on the second floor. The Danevang School, also dating to 1895, held its first classes in the building. Over the years, additions and modifications were made to the Danevang Community Hall to accommodate the needs of the colonists. All major secular and sacred festivals were celebrated here, and the building became a cultural landmark for the community. Torn from its foundation in a 1945 hurricane, the Forsamlingshus was repaired and continues to serve the community, which remained largely Danish American at the turn of the 21st century. (2002)