(La Porte, IN) - Seeing a mechanical miniature church built as a promise to God remains a Christmas tradition for some people who saw it as a child in LaPorte.
Chuck Link hadn’t seen the Giese Chapel in 60 years but was determined to do so during his trip back to LaPorte for the funeral of his father who was just six weeks from turning 100.
“I’m glad I did. It brings back a lot of memories,” he said.
Link, 70, of Goshen said he was overcome with joy from seeing how well the seven-foot high church, full of parishioners made of wood, still looks and functions.
“I’m elated to see it preserved,” he said.
Betty Hildebrandt of LaPorte said her mother and father took her annually to see the church on Christmas Eve while she was growing up in the 1970s. She gushed about the memories triggered by looking not only at the miniature New England-style church but similar looking real churches during her travels.
“To this day, little white churches just mean Christmas to me just because of this church,” she said.
According to local historians, Otto Giese spent Christmas in 1944 serving the country in Belgium as a soldier during World War II. With shells and bombs from the Germans exploding, he quickly made a vow to God that, if he made it back home alive, he would do something to remember and preserve the true spirit of Christmas.
Soon, he found himself in the five-week-long Battle of the Bulge, the last major German offensive of the war in Europe that led to Germany’s defeat.
In 1947, Giese fulfilled his promise by making the church, featuring an altar, pulpit, chandeliers, a balcony, and pews on the inside, as well as stained glass windows.
Giese placed it on the lawn of his funeral home on Harrison Street, where it was visited by an estimated 10,000 people during the first holiday season it was on display.
Christmas music played from within the church twice a day every Sunday. Tiny electric lights were added to the chandeliers the following year. In 1950, a conveyor system allowing robed wooden choir members holding candles to move down the aisle was added.
He later added a moving wooden pastor who enters the altar and turns toward the congregation before delivering a sermon. The voice of the pastor is of the late Ken Coe, once the longtime owner of radio stations WLOI and WCOE in LaPorte.
After retiring in 1978, Giese donated the church to the LaPorte County Historical Society Museum, where electrical experts and other professional volunteers have kept it maintained over the years.
Giese was 90 when he ultimately passed away in 2002.
Museum Director Danielle Adams said the church, on display year-round, sees the most visitors during the Christmas season. She remembers seeing the church during a school field trip to the museum in third grade roughly 16 years ago.
“I thought it was the coolest thing. I loved doll houses and I loved not playing with the dolls. I liked setting them up. This is like that on a huge scale,” she said.
