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ST. PAUL’S EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH F 12 North Sixth Street
Stained-glass windows line all of the exterior walls of St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran
Church on Market Street. The “Jesus Blessing the Children” window, inspired by
Matthew 19, and dedicated in 1914 appears in the foreground. Some of the sanctuary
ceilings are faux painted.
The stucco façade of St. Paul’s Lutheran
Church was added over its initial brick exterior.
Its octagonal spire and roof are embellished with
unique green triangular designs, adding to the
ornate character of the church known for its
Tiffany style stained-glass windows.
Like First Baptist Church, the construction
of St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church was
disrupted by the Civil War.
St. Paul’s churchyard was a military camp,
and troops stabled their horses in the unfin-ished
sanctuary, further slowing the building
process. The Gothic Style structure wasn’t
completed until 1869.
A church of German immigrants, its
consecration service was also celebrated in
German, states a history written by Ann
Hewlett Hutteman. In 1894, the church’s
Sunday School building burnt to the ground,
and the congregation at Temple of Israel,
itself comprised of many German families,
offered its basement to St. Paul’s to continue
its classes.
As the congregation grew, it was able to
enlarge the church and add its current lancet-shaped
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stained-glass windows in the early
1900s. The windows were constructed by
Frank Ellsworth Weeder Stained Glass Studio
of Philadelphia. The opalescent glass, a purely
American method made famous by Louis
Tiffany, has a milky look created from fused
glass panes.
All of St. Paul’s storytelling windows are
framed like a church within a church with
decorative columns, making it seem as if one
has happened upon the biblical scenes.
The church’s associate pastor, the Rev. Mark
Opgrand, says many of the church’s windows
are artistic impressions of famous paintings
from biblical scriptures.
Above the church’s altar is a purple-robed
Jesus kneeling in the Garden of Gethsemane,
an image very similar to the German historical
artist Johann Heinrich Hofmann’s piece of the
same name. It was one of the first windows
installed in the church in 1908.
And in the church’s entryway to the right,
the “Christ the King” window shows a
crowned Jesus holding a lamp to symbolize
the scripture, “I am the light of the world.”
That window was an impression of William
Holman Hunt’s Oxford University piece.