Sunday, July 26, 2015

St. Paul's, Neenah

At the turn of the twentieth century there were five Lutheran Churches in Neenah and not one of them worshiped in english.   By 1912 a group of english speaking lutherans decided to form their own congration.  The church rented a small chapel on Bond Street from The Norwegian Lutherans but it wasn't long before the group realized the need for a bigger house of worship.  In the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern of October 3,1914, under the headline; "A PROPOSED TWIN CITY CHRUCH." there appeared a rendering of a beautiful new edifice.  The accompanying article told of the congregations need and described the new building designed by William Water of Oshkosh.


In March of 1915 there were a series of notices in the Oshkosh press concerning the letting of bids for the construction of the new church, the paper didn't mention who got the job.  St. Paul's was similar to other churches that Waters design during the early decades of the twentieth century, gone were the scoring steeples of the mid 1800's.  Instead architect Waters employed an English County church style as seen in Oshkosh's First Congregational Church of 1910 and St. John's of 1914(See Oshkosh Churches Part Three, 61,2012.  St. Paul's cornerstone was placed on July 12,1915 and the building served as designed until 1956.  It was in that year a massive remodeling project was undertaken; both ends of the church were removed and rebuilt such that the congregation would face east instead of west, and the entrance was moved from N. Commercial Street to the W. North Water Street side of the church.

4 comments:

  1. The Waters buildings at the King Veterans Home near Waupaca.. large home and veterans' cottages... are falling into disrepair. Is their interest in maintaining them? Do you know?

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's a shame the cottages are falling into disrepair. I know of no group that would restore and maintain them.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Those buildings are on The National Register of Historic Places. Since it is owned by the state, they are required by their own laws to preserve and protect these types of properties they own. I will call call Mr. Draeger head of "Compliance" at the State Historical Society. Allowing buildings to erode due to lack of maintance is a favorite of some state agencies cause they are in the way of progress.

    ReplyDelete
  4. David,

    Any response from Mr. Draeger?

    ReplyDelete