Trinity Lutheran Church (St. Louis, Missouri)
Trinity Lutheran Church is a Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) church located in St. Louis, Missouri. It is considered the "mother church" of the LCMS.[1]
Located in the Soulard neighborhood, it is the oldest Lutheran church of the contiguous United States west of the Mississippi River.[2] It is located at 812 Soulard Street, St. Louis, Missouri.[3] Its architectural style is Gothic revival.[4]
The church was founded in 1839 by German Lutheran immigrants from Saxony who had arrived in the United States in 1838. They traveled by boat from New Orleans to St. Louis. Much of their party soon traveled south to Perry County, Missouri; those that remained in St. Louis started a church that went for three years with neither name nor dedicated worship facility.[5]
The Saxon Lutherans brought with them a library, church organ, and church bells.[6] The congregation's school had roots dating to the 1830s when the Saxon children studied on their journey to the United States.[7] Otto Hermann Walther was inducted as the first pastor on June 9, 1839.[8] The congregation first met at an Episcopal church at Broadway and Walnut Streets.[5]
When Otto Hermann Walther died in 1841, his brother Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther accepted the call to lead Trinity Lutheran.[8][9]
The first building, on Lombard Street, was dedicated in 1842.[5]
C.F.W. Walther's tenure at Trinity lasted from May 1841 until his death in 1887, during which time he founded the LCMS and became president of Concordia Seminary.[10]
A new church at Eighth and Soulard was built in 1865.[3][5] This building was destroyed by the 1896 St. Louis tornado. The congregation rebuilt the sanctuary on the same property and were able to incorporate a pulpit and baptismal font that survived the tornado.[3][11]
Trinity was known as the "mother church" to three other early Lutheran congregations in St. Louis; this group was called the Gesammtgemeinde, or "general congregation".[6] The others were Immanuel (1848 – 2012) in the Greater Ville neighborhood, Holy Cross Lutheran (1858) in the Gravois Park neighborhood, and Zion Lutheran (1860) in the St. Louis Place neighborhood[3][10]
The 150th anniversary of the LCMS was celebrated at Trinity in 1997.[12] Restoration work on one of its mahogany window frames was completed in 2008.[13]
External links
- ^ "Sacred Ground: Trinity Lutheran Church". Show Me Missouri. Retrieved 2022-01-07.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "St. Louis Historic Preservation". dynamic.stlouis-mo.gov. Retrieved 2022-01-07.
- ^ a b c d "Trinity Lutheran Church, St. Louis". St. Louis Genealogical Society. Retrieved 2022-01-07.
- ^ "House Tour: Soulard Holiday Parlour Tour Showcases Historic City Neighborhood". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 1999-11-26. p. 57. Retrieved 2021-09-07.
- ^ a b c d "Proud Past, Bright Future Mark Church's 150 Years". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 1989-07-29. p. 21. Retrieved 2021-09-09.
- ^ a b "A Mother Church of Lutheranism". The St. Louis Star and Times. 1934-04-02. p. 18. Retrieved 2021-09-09.
- ^ Fox, Tim (1995). Where We Live: A Guide to St. Louis Communities. Missouri History Museum. ISBN 978-1-883982-12-6.
- ^ a b "Trinity Lutheran Church plans its 90th anniversary". St. Louis Globe-Democrat. 1929-05-26. p. 18. Retrieved 2022-01-07.
- ^ Donlon, Regina (2018-06-29). German and Irish Immigrants in the Midwestern United States, 1850–1900. Springer. ISBN 978-3-319-78738-1.
- ^ a b "C.F.W. (Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm) Walther (1811-1887) Papers, c.1828-1887". Concordia Historical Institute. 2014-08-27. Retrieved 2022-01-07.
- ^ "Old Trinity Church Plays Community Host". The St. Louis Star and Times. 1947-06-07. p. 9. Retrieved 2021-09-08.
- ^ "150 and Counting". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. 1997-04-12. p. 25. Retrieved 2021-09-08.
- ^ Leicht, Joe. "McFarland helps restore historic Soulard church". STLtoday.com. Retrieved 2021-09-09.