115 South 6th Street (at Jefferson)
St. Charles, Missouri 63301
www.immanuelstcharles.org

St. Charles was founded by Louis Blanchette in 1765, a year after St. Louis, but like St. Louis its French origins were submerged by German immigration by the middle of the 19th century. The first Lutherans arrived in the area in the 1830s, particularly from the northern states of Hanover and Mecklenburg. They worshiped at rural churches in the region and at a former Presbyterian building at 3rd and Madison. Timber from one of these rustic places was used to create the cross that can still be seen in the Narthex. Dr. C.F.W. Walther, the head of Trinity Lutheran Church in Soulard, installed Rudolph Lange as permanent pastor in 1848. A stone building for the formally organized Immanuel Church was started the next year at 6th and Jefferson, the present site. It was dedicated early in 1850.

Just 17 years later, the big new brick church was dedicated on Reformation Sunday, October 29, 1867, the 350th anniversary of Martin Luther’s 95 Theses. Three services in German and one in English were held that day, and the next day the Wabash Railroad brought a special train from St. Louis with nine cars filled with the faithful. The new building on its hilltop site reflected the dominant role of the congregation in the community, attracting members from a wide area, including northwestern St. Louis County, where there were no Lutheran churches until much later. The church spire, visible from across the river, was the only one in St. Charles at the time. It rose 158 feet, later raised to 176 feet, and in 1912 given a gold cross 12 feet high. The tower was planned to hold three bells, the largest inscribed “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott.” The tower clocks were originally created by local machinist Grover C. Parker. Immanuel is one of the earliest and largest surviving Gothic Revival churches in the region, but it was designed by an architectural firm from Cleveland, Griese & Weile.

Some features of the interior are original, including the altar, with its statues of Mary and John, Moses and Paul. The pulpit is ornamented with figures of the four Evangelists and Jesus. The font is cast iron, imported from Germany. The whole church was redecorated in 1922 in anticipation of Immanuel’s 75th anniversary, and the opalescent art glass windows were installed at that time. New pews were installed in 1937 and the floor carpeted by the Ladies Aid organizations. New lighting fixtures date from between 1955 and 1965, and air conditioning arrived in 1972.

Both the school and the administration shifted to English during World War I, and the congregation has continued to prosper, now occupying a group of buildings spread over two city blocks, including Immanuel Lutheran School in 1952 by Wischmeyer and Lorenz, expanded in 1969, the Education and Activities Center by Froese, Maack & Becker in 1969, the Lutheran Center by Eugene Potente, Jr. of Kenosha in 1982, and the Fellowship Hall by the Wind Architectural Group in 1998.

February 18, 2007 marked the Chamber Chorus’s first performance at Immanuel Lutheran Church.

Notes by Esley Hamilton and Philip Barnes
Photos by Beth Tuttle