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The location for our Fall 2020 program meeting was this historic site dedicated to the Swedish immigrant experience in Scandia, MN. Colonial Dames gathered on Saturday, Sept. 12, for a socially-distanced tour at Gammelgården Museum in Scandia, Minn. All members wore masks except while eating lunch. The executive director of Gammelgården, Lynne Moratzka, led our tour around the exteriors of five buildings and showed us historic artifacts, all telling the story of Swedish immigration to America in the 1850s and 1860s. The museum includes the oldest Lutheran sanctuary still standing in Minnesota, built in 1856, which is still in use for summer worship and celebrating Santa Lucia Day in December, as well as weddings and baptisms. We also saw the pastor’s house, built as a parsonage in 1868 to attract a Swedish pastor and his family to come to the immigrant community in Scandia. Other buildings there are a two-level 1879 barn, an immigrant house built in 1855, and a replica of a peasant house called a stuga.
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Masked Dames with masked Dala horse

Event chair Jenny Norris Peterson greets our group on arrival

Executive director Lynne Moratzka provided an overview of experiences common to all types of immigrants, and then led us on our tour.

Our socially distanced group listened to Lynne.

Lynne spoke in front of the stuga, or peasant house
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The grounds are popular spots for local residents to walk

Gammelkyrkan - Minnesota's oldest Lutheran church still standing is active to this day. It was established in 1856.

The group gathered outside the barn

Executive Director Lynn Moratzka with copper pot

The group gathred before saying goodbye
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