Chicago Lutheran History: First Bethlehem Lutheran Church
In 1896, the Lutheran churches of Chicago published Geschichte der Gründung und Ausbreitung der zur Synode von Missouri, Ohio und Andern Staaten gehörenden Evangelisch-Lutherischen Gemeinden U. A. C. zu Chicago, Illinois, a history of their growth in the city beginning with First St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, now located on LaSalle and Goethe streets in Chicago. As far as I know, there is no English translation of this document, so I offer this translation to share this history with you. Follow me to get updates about the rest of this work.
First Bethlehem Lutheran Church is the eighth Lutheran church in Chicago. Located in the Bucktown/Wicker Park area, the congregation was one of the largest in the city of Chicago. Around 1900, First Bethlehem had more than 5,000 members with only two pastors. Their first Pastor, Augustus Reinke, was in office until his death as were his two sons, who both of whom began as associate pastors and became the senior pastor. In 1905, First Bethlehem began a rapid decline in membership as settlers expanded the boundaries of Chicago, and church members moved to find less expansive homes.
First Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church
This congregation was founded on the 26th of June 1871, when 26 members of the Evangelical Lutheran St. John congregation were released, erecting the Evangelical Lutheran Bethlehem Church near the corner of North Paulina and McReynolds Street. In the year 1868, the St. John congregation, under the leadership of teacher Louis Appelt set up a mission school on North Paulina street near Milwaukee Avenue. This school can be marked as the starting point of the Bethlehem congregation, which immediately after their organization considered calling a pastor.
The choice fell to Pastor A. Reinke in Blue Island, Ill. The same followed the call after he had received it the third time. His installation followed on the 1st of October, performed by Pastor H. Wunder with the assistance of the pastors Joh. Große and W. Bartling. 8 days later, namely on the day of the great fire, the 9th of October, as Chicago was in flames, Pastor Reinke came with his family to his new congregation. The frame church with a brick base, which later served as a school and parsonage, was still under construction and did not yet have a roof. The great fire so raised the price of labor and material that the contractors annulled their contracts. That is why the building came in a few thousand dollars higher than expected. The festival preachers were the sainted Director Lindemann and the Pastors Christian Körner and Johannes Große.
Around that time, the part of the city in which Bethlehem church stood was only a little settled. Great stretches were still prairie, wide pastures. But soon, after the church was finished, this part of the city quickly increased in population. Streets were laid out, and out of the new settlers God supplied the young congregation many faithful members. The school grew rapidly, the number of voting members increased year after year, so that they are recorded today as the largest and most numerous congregation in the Synod.
As a result of their growth, the congregation felt compelled to widen and expand their school constantly. Out of the mission school, from which later sprang Christ congregation, the Bethlehem congregation had five classes near the church in addition to two mission schools, one on Girard Street near Clybourn Place, and one at North Leavitt and Frankfort Street. In the year 1882, new classrooms had to be erected. So the congregation then decided to redo the parsonage under the church as school rooms, and for that reason they bought two lots on North Wood (now Lincoln) street and they built a two story parsonage out of brick. In the same year, they called their first associate pastor, Candidate E. Werfelmann from the seminary in Springfield, Ill, who took over the mission school and was later called by the Christ congregation, which later emerged from there, as their pastor.
Then the congregation, by the grace of God, enjoyed a constant growth, so the church building, which had seats for between 1,100 and 1,200, proved to be too small. They felt it necessary, if the mission work should not suffer, to enlarge the church building. To the west, the only direction it is possible to plant churches, the Christ congregation had already been released. With joy, they decided to enlarge God’s house to create space. This enlarging also became a majestic beautification, in which a part of the side wall, the south side with sacristy, the tower and the north side of the church had been removed, and now a more stately cross-shaped building, made out of “pressed brick” rose up.
On the northwest corner rose up to the heavens a slender 186-foot tall tower with three resounding bells and a reliable tower clock. The northeast corner presented a small tower. In this expansion of the old church, they had seen that it did not lack light, room, and height. Entering the interior of the church, one sees how the fresco painting is done with a still, soft tone. The niche had a stately high altar, on which the carved-wood statues of the apostles Paul and Peter stand. The front of the altar is likewise an artistic wood carving, representing the holy supper by Leonardo da Vinci. Behind the altar, one stands in the niche of Bethlehem, from which the star lets fall it’s bright rays. An angel floats higher above, who brought the tidings: “Behold, I bring you tidings of great joy!”
It is similarly elegant how the pulpit is attached to the side of the altar. A large, powerful but still delicate sounding organ accompanied congregational singing. The acoustics leave nothing to be desired. The listeners can hear every word in the farthest corner without help. Comfortable seats are placed in a semi-circle, so one immediately understands how anxious they were to use every possible inch, that there couldn’t be one more seat for a listener. In spite of the expansion (the church is 118 feet long and 70 feet wide in the transepts) only a small room could be reserved for the sacristy, and in the wide aisle, the seats had to be equipped with so-called “extensions,” while a stool is placed in the narrow aisle next to the pews. The result is that although the chancel space is quite limited, because of this the church offers people close to 2,000 places. For exits, it is richly supplied, 7 in number, by which the completely full church is emptied in exactly two minutes.
This remodeled and enlarged church was dedicated on the 2nd Sunday of Advent, 1889. The pastors H. Engelbrecht of Chicago, B. Sievers of Milwaukee, and Professor R. Pieper from Springfield took the festival sermons.
The synodical meeting of the Illinois District has been held twice in Bethlehem’s church building. In the year 1883, from 16th until the 23rd of May, the Illinois District held their synod’s seventh meeting in this church. The congregation housed 362 synodical guests. The Synod president, H, Schwan, preached on Psalm 127:1–2 at the opening of the synod. The theses about the theme, “Duties of the family and of the church in Christian upbringing” served as the topic of the speech.
The congregation had known for many years that the burden of work in such a large congregation had to be placed on two preachers, and the pastors E. Werselmann, J. Brauer, J. D. Matthius have been active in the same as associate pastors. The eldest son of the pastor, Pastor Edwin Reinke, has been our associate pastor since 1893.
The congregation presently numbers 680 voting members and 3,000 communicant members. The school has 975 children in 10 classes. The current teachers are: C. Brand, L. Karau, E. Steinkraus, E. Carstenn, R. Abel, L. Appelt, H. Lehwaldt, R. Wismar. Two female teachers are employed in addition to the named teachers.
