St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church Complex
About this property
St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church is a Gothic Revival-styled Lutheran church built in 1889 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin by a congregation with German roots. In 1992, the church and associated buildings were listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is also designated a Milwaukee Landmark. The church is an active parish of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), a denomination of Confessional Lutheranism. St. John's congregation was founded December 4, 1848, by German immigrants, who called themselves Evangelische Luth. St. Johanneskirche. In 1850, they moved into the former Trinity Episcopal Church at the corner of Fourth and Highland Avenue. Members of the church, along with neighboring Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church and Grace Lutheran, helped seed other Lutheran churches in the area, including St. Peter's. In the 1850s there were discussions to merge St. John's and Trinity, but theological differences prevented the merger. In 1857, St. John's joined the Wisconsin Synod. St. Johanneskirche grew for years, building schools in 1871 and 1877. By 1889, the congregation exceeded 2,500 members, and it was time for a new, larger building. St. John's hired Herman Paul Schnetzky, himself a German immigrant from Wriezen, to design the new church. He and his understudy Eugene R. Liebert designed it in a High Victorian Gothic style similar to what was popular in Germany at the time, perhaps taking cues from the tower of St. Peter's Church in Leipzig. It was built in 1889-90 by Johann Langenberger. As with the Trinity Church building, it features landmark spires of unequal height, one 127 feet (39 m) and the other 197 feet (60 m). The taller steeple houses three bells, weighing more than 6 short tons (5.4 t). The main block of the church is gable-roofed with cream brick walls pierced by tall Gothic-arched windows. Inside, the auditorium is 2.5 stories tall, seating 1100, with a center-aisle layout and the apse at the north end, with an elaborate carved reredos and an elevated pulpit. The NRHP nomination considers St. John's to be important as an illustration of how Milwaukee's German-American architects were influenced by German architecture of the same period. The church is considered to be one of the finest examples of German Lutheran church architecture in the United States. Also in 1889, the congregation built a parsonage designed by Schnetzky. The parsonage is two stories, cream brick, in rather simple Queen Anne architectural style. The caretaker's house was built in 1914, a side-gabled bungalow with stuccoed walls. St. John's conducted services solely in German until 1908. In that year services in English were added. The German services continued until 1985.
Location
Categories
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.
Everything a full report reveals about St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church Complex
This page lists St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church Complex. A full Aubrey report for an address near it pulls together this listing alongside battlefield records, land patents, and every other historical record within a chosen radius:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Questions about this property
When was St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church Complex listed on the National Register?
St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church Complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 17, 1992.
What type of historic resource is St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church Complex?
St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church Complex is classified as a district in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church Complex?
The period of significance for St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church Complex is recorded as the listed era.
Can I research the history near St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church Complex?
Yes. Aubrey Research reports search National Register listings, battlefield records, land patents, and other primary historical sources within any radius of a US address. A report for an address near St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church Complex will include this listing and all other historical records in the area.
More in Milwaukee County
Historic places, battles, and census history across Milwaukee County.
Explore MilwaukeeCounty ›More historic places in Wisconsin
Browse all historic places in Wisconsin.
View Wisconsinhistoric sites ›Wisconsin history
Colonial settlement, territorial period, and statehood narrative.
Wisconsinhistory ›Research the history near this site
An Aubrey US report for an address near St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church Complex will include this listing alongside battlefield records and other historical sources within your chosen radius.