Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church

The 1874 constitution was a second start. An earlier congregation formed on April 10, 1871, with 27 households, and in 1872 it split into a Dessau church and Immanuel. The red brick church built in 1909 for $10,300 was dedicated on January 23, 1910, and burned on March 16, 1928. The rebuilt church was dedicated on March 3, 1929, with more than 1,000 people attending; the building and its pipe organ cost $43,000. The hilltop site overlooks Gilleland Creek, and the congregation marked 150 years in 2024.

What the plaque says

Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church Circuit riders began in 1852 to hold religious services in this area. In 1869, the Texas Synod of the Lutheran church sent Pastor F. Ernst to preach to the local Lutherans, and on May 31, 1874, a congregational constitution was adopted under the guidance of Pastor F. Jesse. William Bohls, a prominent landowner, donated five acres of land for a church building and cemetery. On June 20, 1875, a spired frame sanctuary was dedicated. A brick edifice was built in 1909, and after it burned in 1928, this structure was erected. (1974)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• The Round Rock — 7.2 mi
  A table-shaped stone in Brushy Creek gave Round Rock its name in 1854; the Chisholm Trail crossed the creek near it, and Old Town stayed behind when the railroad pulled the town east.
• LBJ Presidential Library — 12 mi
  A ten-story travertine archive on the University of Texas campus holding 45 million pages from a presidency of civil rights laws, the War on Poverty and Vietnam.
• Mount Bonnell — 12 mi
  Austin's old lookout over the Colorado, named by an 1838 traveler, picnicked on by George and Libbie Custer, and reached by a 1939 flight of about 100 limestone steps.
• Harry Ransom Center — 13 mi
  The University of Texas archive where a Gutenberg Bible and the earliest surviving camera photograph are always on view, free, beside the papers of Watergate and the movies.

More markers nearby

• Pflugerville — 0.8 mi
• Pflugerville Schools — 1.1 mi
• St. Mary Missionary Baptist Church — 1.3 mi
• Evangelical Lutheran Church of Dessau — 2.6 mi