The History of
Zion Lutheran Church
It all began on November 20, 1859 when a number of citizens of the Evangelical Lutheran Confession gathered together at a place called "Excursion Hall". That's the day "ZION LUTHERAN CHURCH" came into existence. Pastor C. A. Fritze was called to serve this new congregation on January 29, 1860.
Several years later in 1867 Zion built a modest-sized sanctuary as the first permanent structure for regular worship, service and fellowship. The structure has been added to and altered over the past 150 years to form the church structure used today. The two sides of that first church building are still standing and still welcome those that gather to worship our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
What follows is a bit of information about Zion's history over the years. Our archivists are happy to research questions for genealogists and people looking for information about baptisms, marriages, etc. Please contact the church office for assistance with this.
Thanks to the Historical Data Committee for gathering the information on this page! Submitted by: Margaret Butler - Jeanette Ricci - Louise Ryan
1931 Sanctuary Expansion
This picture was taken in 1931 right after the completion of a sanctuary expansion. The front wall shown in the picture is actually brand new. If you look closely you will see that the carriage lights on each side of the door are not yet installed. They were installed a month or two after this photo was taken. You can also see on each side of the new bell tower temporary roof planks used to help the construction people work on that tower. This new front wall extended the church eight feet further toward Philadelphia Avenue and gave the church it’s first narthex. This allowed for a hat and coat area as well as an extra set of doors to keep the cold weather out of the sanctuary. This wall would stand for the next 35 years (until 1966) when it was torn down and another front wall was built a further eight feet toward Philadelphia Ave. The 1966 front wall still stands today.
Historic Photographs
