St. John's Lutheran Church
National Register of Historic Places

St. John's Lutheran Church

Knoxville, Knox County, Tennessee
Listed
April 3, 1985
Type
Building
Period
Industrial
Ref No.
85000700

About this property

St. John's Lutheran Church is a historic Lutheran church located at 544 Broadway NW (Emory Place) in Knoxville, Tennessee. The church building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, both individually and as a contributing property in the Emory Place Historic District. The St. John's congregation was formed in 1888. It was the first English-language Lutheran congregation in Knoxville. The founding members were Lutherans of German heritage who preferred English over German, which was then used in other local Lutheran churches. Initially, they met for worship in the First German Evangelical Lutheran Church in downtown Knoxville. In 1889, the group leased the former the Broad Street Methodist Episcopal Church building, on the corner of Broadway and Fifth Avenue, for worship use. In 1890, the congregation incorporated, affiliated with the United Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the South, and purchased the former Broad Street Methodist property. Development of the current church building began in 1910 after church member Martha Henson donated land one block north of the church building. After adjoining land was acquired, construction of the new church building began in August 1911. The new church was completed and dedicated in 1912. R. F. Graf was the architect of the Gothic Revival style building. Martha Henson contributed almost $90,000 toward the $100,000 cost of the project as a memorial to her husband, James A. Henson. Gothic elements in the building include arches at windows and doorways, exterior buttresses, and tracery. The church's interior utilizes quarter sawn oak. Hammerbeam trusses vault the sanctuary, rising to almost 40 feet (12 m). The sanctuary is surrounded by 61 stained glass windows, including a series of nine pictorial windows that depict scenes from the Bible in chronological sequence. The windows were designed by Von Gerichten Art Glass of Cincinnati and assembled onsite during building construction. The congregation is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).

Location

544 Broadway, NW
Knoxville, Knox County, Tennessee
35.97401, -83.92366

Categories

ARCHITECTURE
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Nearby Historic Sites

Minvilla
Industrial
0.1 mi
Emory Place Historic District (Additional Documentation)
Listed
0.2 mi
Old Gray Cemetery
Early Republic
0.2 mi
Knoxville National Cemetery
Civil War
0.2 mi
Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church
Industrial
0.3 mi

Nearby Battles

Battle of Cavett's Station 1793
1793Early Republic
0.2 mi

Questions about this property

When was St. John's Lutheran Church listed on the National Register?

St. John's Lutheran Church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 3, 1985.

What type of historic resource is St. John's Lutheran Church?

St. John's Lutheran Church is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for St. John's Lutheran Church?

The period of significance for St. John's Lutheran Church is recorded as the industrial era.

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