With the completion of the current Trinity facility in 1970, items from the sanctuary of Trinity’s red brick church built in 1911 were installed in a memorial chapel located at the west end of the current narthex. These items included pews, altar, altar rail, pulpit, font, red carpet, and light fixtures. Later, some of the stained glass panels from the 1911 church were installed in the upper walls of the chapel to further retain the beauty of the that structure.

Not included in the chapel though was a large circular stained glass window which had originally been located above the altar in the “red brick” church. That window was placed in storage at the time of the church’s 1938 expansion and remodeling and was then moved to the archives of the current church when the old church was demolished.

In 2017, discussion regarding renovating and making the memorial chapel more visible came to fruition thanks to several significant memorial gifts. While choosing to maintain the original pews, altar, pulpit, font and altar rail, the renovation included removing the dark wood paneling, installing LED lights in the original fixtures, changing to a color scheme of cream-colored walls with light brown carpet with a river pattern, and the addition of a wall of windows and door making the chapel visible from the narthex. The dramatic blue and gold stenciling on the walls and around the light fixtures was done by local artist Naomi Ullum, copied from original stencil patterns of G.N. Malm of Lindsborg, that were found in historical photographs of the 1911 sanctuary.

The final touch came when workers were removing the dark wood paneling and uncovered a circle that had been roughed into the rear wall of the existing chapel. It was then that church members realized the wall had originally been intended to hold the circular stained glass window which had now been in storage for nearly 80 years. That window, along with the other furnishings from the 1911 church, has now been placed in the renovated and aptly named Heritage Chapel.

A special thank you goes to the families of Kenneth and Helen Swanson, Owen Kaufman, Joe Ledell and Paula Premer for their memorial gifts which were key to the completion of the newly renovated Heritage Chapel.