Historic church in Wisconsin, United States
St. Peter's Evangelical Lutheran Church, or Iglesia Luterana San Pedro, is a historic church complex located in the Walker's Point neighborhood of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Its buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
History.
St. Peter's congregation () was founded February 14, 1860, by German immigrants, with 34 charter members. In 1861, the congregation bought a frame building for its first church and moved it to the corner of South Eighth and West Scott Streets. In 1866, the congregation built a small brick-clad Gothic-influenced church designed by John Rugee. In 1873, the congregation added the frame parsonage which still survives, and, in 1879, the school building. In 1884, 13 families were released from the congregation to establish Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church. The congregation is affiliated with the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS).
The current church building was designed by Milwaukee architect Andrew Elleson in Victorian Gothic style and built in 1885. It has a cruciform floor-plan, with a massive square tower on each side of the front entrance - one tall and the other tall. The pedimented gables on the larger tower have a German flavor, similar to St. Mary's in Lubeck. The spires on the towers and the peak of the gable are topped with crosses. The interior is well-preserved, with the altar standing in a tall apse, and in front of an antique white wood reredos. To the altar's left is an elevated goblet-shaped pulpit. A U-shaped balcony rings the sides and back of the nave, a common feature of 18th century churches in Germany. A large pipe organ commands the back.
Other remaining structures in the complex are:
In 1860, the congregation and building rose out of a working-class neighborhood of modest homes of immigrants. The south side is not so different in 1987.
References.
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