First Evangelical Church (Houston)

On July 1, 1851, a group led by the Rev. Caspar Messon Braun (1822–1880) founded the Erste Deutsche Evangelische Lutherische Kirche, or First German Evangelical Lutheran Church. The state of Texas issued the church's charter on September 21 of that year. First Lutheran was the first Lutheran congregation in Houston and the second Lutheran congregation in Texas, and is responsible for the establishment of eight daughter congregations in Harris County.

In November, 1851, just two months after its founding, six missionaries from St. Chrischona of Basel, Switzerland, arrived in Texas. Along with Braun, they established the First Evangelical Lutheran Synod in Texas, often called the Texas Synod. The purpose of the synod was to gather the many Lutherans in Texas that were without congregations and a churchly structure. The confession of the synod included subscription to the Lutheran Confessions, adopting the symbolical books as found in the Book of Concord of 1580, accepting the Unaltered Small Catechism, and selecting the German Hymn book of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the United States.

The first church building was erected on the southeast corner of Texas Avenue at Milam Street. In 1901, under the Rev. William L. Blasberg (1862–1935), the congregation moved to the northwest corner of Texas Avenue at Caroline Street, to a new red brick and sandstone edifice built in the Gothic tradition. After selling the second structure in 1926, the First Evangelical Church, as it had become known, purchased the current site on Holman Street. Under the leadership of the Rev. Detlev Baltzer (1889–1962), the congregation hired architect Joseph W. Northrop, Jr., who had moved to Houston to oversee construction of the original Rice Institute, now Rice University. James West was general contractor for the new church campus, and J. C. Nolan and the Star Electric and Engineering Company held sub-contracts.[2]

Northrop's North Italian Romanesque styling features terra cotta roof tiles on the nave, education building, and parsonage, as well as a campanile, or bell tower. The buildings were constructed of interlocking concrete tiles covered with buff-face brick and white sandstone trim. The campanile's bell, forged in 1880, has rung at each of the congregation's places of worship. The tower connects the nave to the seven-bay arched portals of the education building, which houses classrooms, offices, auditoriums, and a stage. The nave's details include pulpit and altar made by master woodcarvers from Oberammergau, Germany. The organ it currently has is new, replacing the previous organ following a 2011 fire. First Lutheran was recorded as a Texas Historic Landmark in 2002.[2]

First Lutheran's history since 2002 is as interesting as its founding. Through the 20th century, First Lutheran had moved through several different denominations. In early 2002, a Houston lawyer and civic leader discovered that First Church, the first Lutheran congregation in Houston was technically no longer "Lutheran". Virtually no Lutherans in Houston except those who had attended First Lutheran knew that the "First Church" was still in existence. At that time the congregation was quite small. The church faced the real possibility of having to close its doors.

Based upon extensive research, congregational forums, First Lutheran joined the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in 2002, only to join the NALC in 2011.This move was encouraged and sponsored by sister congregation, Christ the King Lutheran Church, located near Rice University in the Village neighborhood of Houston. In 2006, the Rev. Edwin D. Peterman, a distinguished Lutheran pastor and well-known teaching theologian, began to serve as Interim Pastor. The congregation began to grow again, and called a full-time pastor in December 2009 (Evan McClanahan).[2]

• Official website