First St Paul’s Lutheran Church
History of the Buildings 11th Street
Information compiled by Roger and Deena Karspeck

First St. Paul’s Lutheran Church was organized by a small group of Lutheran people in June 8, 1925. The first services were held in the I.O.O.F. hall.

In 1926, the congregation felt the need for a more adequate place to worship. On November 16, 1926, the council called a special congregation meeting to discuss building a church basement. It was approved, and at that time they appointed a Building Committee.

The Building Committee met right after the congregational meeting and decided that a 36X48 basement Church would meet their needs. They made a list of materials they needed for the construction of the basement, so they could get bids from the different lumberyards.

The building committee met again the next morning after receiving the bids from the lumberyards. They accepted the bid of Esch Lumber of $674.00. As the Church did not have any property to build on yet, the Building Committee that same day toured some building lots that were available. They chose our current location known as the Esch-Penny site. That afternoon they met with Mr. Esch and Mr. Penny to draw up the Warranty Deed, purchasing 5 lots for $600.00.

On Nov. 22, congregation members met in the new site to start digging the basement by hand themselves. Three days later, they had the digging finished and the lumber for the forms hauled to the site. According to the work diary, they took Thanksgiving Day off. By Dec. 1, the members had the basement walls completed, doing the forming, gravel hauling, mixing and pouring the concrete themselves.

On Dec. 14, the Reverend and Board President “autoed” to Denver to buy 60 seats for the new church. I could find no records of when the first service was actually held in the basement, but I found proof they were having services in January of 1927.

For the next few years, financial times were very difficult. They sought money from the American Mission Board in “aid” money and also in loans. As the congregation did not have enough money to pay the Pastor, They asked him to take another call as soon as he could. They had to finish the work as they could financially afford it. The dedication of the Church Basement was April 27, 1930, almost four years since the start of the project.

The Basement Church was plain cement walls and floors, with no paint for many years. It was heated by a potbellied stove that stood in the middle of the Church. It was the usher’s responsibility to keep feeding the coal on the fire. The Church was very crude, but it didn’t matter, they were able to Worship and Praise their Lord and Savior.

In 1930 a Pastor was called and the congregation grew. The American Mission Board had been giving an allowance to the congregation for the Pastors house rent. With the congregation growing there was a concern that the Mission Board would withdraw that allowance, but they agreed to help pay for the building a parsonage. The congregation voted to build a new parsonage. Bids were put out and one was accepted for $2887.00. The parsonage was dedicated June 7, 1931. The Lutheran Band played at the Dedication Service.

Five pastors made this their home for a total of 37 years. After our current parsonage was built this building was renamed the Alpha House. The Alpha House main use was for Sunday school, but was used for many things. It was a home for a Vietnamese refuge family in the 1970’s that First St. Paul’s sponsored. It was rented by the school district, Girl Scouts, Tops Club, Cub Scouts, A.A. meetings, Mental Health, Explorers, Avon meetings, and day care centers to name a few.

The garage was also built in 1931, with all donated labor. In the closing months of 1931, the depression was felt deeply by the members of the congregation. Membership fees during these times were $1.00 per member per year and some could not pay.

In 1934 the Ladies Aid of the Church offered to donate money for the cement to put in sidewalks and street curbs of the “men” donated their labor, in which they did. The money the Ladies Aid used for this project came in an amusing way. In 1930, at the annual meeting, the Ladies Aid discussed the question of having a lunch booth at the County Fair. “The members of the congregation expressed their willingness to sooner donate $10.00 each than run a booth.” They elected a special collector at this meeting to get this money.

At the October 1943 Council meeting, “Every member of the board was of the opinion that we could not expect our church to grow as long as our services were held in the basement because of the uninviting display of our house of worship. To expedite the growth of the Church by making it more inviting to the Church outsider, we must have a Church building on top of the basement.” At that meeting the Council created a Church Building Fund.

It was decided at the 1945 annual meeting to purchase the 2 lots north of the parsonage. The price was not mentioned in the minutes.

On April 6, 1947, a special congregation meeting was called by the Council to “decide as the type of church the congregation wanted, whether they would be satisfied with the decisions of the council and building committee which was a cement block church patterned after the Lutheran Church in Greenley, with a brick veneer on the outside and an enclosed ceiling like the Catholic Church at Platteville, or if anyone else had something else in mind. After a brief discussion it was voted and carried 100% in favor of building the new church according to the council and building committee recommendations.” It was a modified Spanish Mission style that they thought would be in harmony with the nature of this territory, and fitting the general pattern of the buildings of the city of Burlington.

Work was started on August 18, 1947, with over $16,000 in the building fund. A plan was promoted whereby each member would give an average of three days every two weeks in voluntary labor to the church. People were divided up to work different shifts. Families of the congregation worked hard, sometimes working until 11:00 o’clock at night. A time record was kept of the number of days worked. 1,589 man-days of labor and 113 evenings were given. Two members of First St. Paul’s were the contractors for building the Church. In the beginning, members thought they could do most of the work themselves including laying the block and brick. They had success with the block, but not the brick. They started laying the brick, but had to tear it down, because it just wasn’t right. They hired the bricklayers that were working on building the hospital, which was being built at the same time as our Church. The ladies of the Church, prepared food for the brick payers at the Community Center.

The church furniture, the altar, pulpit, and pews required a great deal of work. Two men of the congregation, in a 1935 Chevy truck brought in the solid oak lumber from the oak forests of Arkansas. The planning, sawing, laminating, gluing, sanding and finishing was done in the church basement. Temporary church services were held in the Community Center during construction.

Dedication Services were held May 9, 1948 and the church was debt free on that day, at a cost of approximately of $32,000.00.

The lots across the street from the church came up for sale in 1955. It was being used as a pasture for horses. The church bought them for $2,000.00. The council started a building fund pledge drive in 1967, for the possibility of building a parsonage. The congregation voted at the 1968 annual meeting to build a new parsonage on these lots. The parsonage was a pre-fabricated Westhand Home and a member of First St. Paul’s was designated as the contractor. The parsonage was dedicated in September of 1968. The cost was about $26,000.00 which was financed through a loan. The parsonage mortgage burning was held on Easter Sunday, 1976.

In 1973 it was decided to renovate the Chancel. The East wall of the Chancel had a cove where velvet dosel curtains hung. The altar was against the dosel curtains. The plaster around these curtains started to crack and so our current brick background with the wooden cross was installed. The altar was moved out from the wall making it a freestanding altar as it is now.

During 1977, the North stairs going down to the basement was filled in. This accomplished making more room in the Narthex, and allowed the mailboxes to be added.

At different times during the 80’s and 90’s, the congregation explored different options to make the church larger and more accessible for our members. March 4, 2001, the congregation voted to build a new church building at Senter and and Hollowell. In Feb. of 2002, the church building and Alpha house was sold to the Immaculate Conception Traditional Roman Catholic Church. First St. Paul’s conducted its worship services in the building on 11th and Donelan on Sunday, Sept. 29, 2002.

First St. Paul’s will be holding church services temporarily in the Community Center, anxiously waiting for the completion of our new church building, just as we did 55 years ago. May God continue to bless and guide us.

Artifacts utilized were church records, church bulletins, newspaper clippings, information from the Burlington Library and personal accounts from members.