St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church

The Houston architect the plaque names, Alfred C. Finn, was born in Bellville in 1883 and went to Houston at seventeen as a railroad carpenter. By the mid-1920s he was the city's leading commercial architect, working most often for the developer Jesse H. Jones. His office drew the Gulf Building, the tallest in Texas in the 1920s, and later the San Jacinto Monument, finished in 1939. The Handbook of Texas lists Brenham among the towns with major buildings from his office. A church for Brenham's German Lutherans was a small job beside those.

What the plaque says

St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church German immigrants began settling in Washington County in the 1840s. The first German Lutheran congregation began in 1855 in the community of Berlin. The growing German Lutheran community in Brenham organized this congregation, first known as the German Evangelical Lutheran Church, in 1890 and called The Rev. Gottlieb Langner to serve as pastor. Worship services were held in the local Presbyterian church until a Lutheran sanctuary was built in 1891. It was destroyed in the September 1900 storm which also devastated Galveston and the Texas Gulf Coast. By the end of the year, however, the cornerstone was laid for a new structure. Worship services were conducted exclusively in the German language until 1902. The name of the congregation officially was changed to St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church in 1915. Continued growth led to the need for larger facilities, and the membership hired Houston architect Alfred C. Finn to design a new sanctuary which was dedicated at this site in 1925. It later was enlarged and remodeled. Throughout its history, this church has been involved in civic activities and charitable endeavors. It remains an integral part of the community. (1990)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Independence and Old Baylor Park — 11 mi
  A crossroads north of Brenham that was the richest town in Texas when it won Baylor University in 1845, refused the railroad, and lost the college to Waco and Belton in 1886.
• Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historic Site — 18 mi
  The townsite on the Brazos where delegates met in a cold, unfinished hall in March 1836 to declare Texas independent, with Independence Hall rebuilt and Anson Jones's Barrington farm worked as in 1850.
• Star of the Republic Museum — 18 mi
  A star-shaped museum of the Republic of Texas years, 1836 to 1846, built at Washington-on-the-Brazos after a Brenham campaign and opened on March 1, 1970.
• Round Top and Festival Hill — 19 mi
  A German village on the old La Bahía Road, named for a house tower, with an 1867 stone church, a Fourth of July kept since 1851 and a concert hall a pianist built without blueprints.

More markers nearby

• Evangelical Lutheran Colleges of Texas — 0.3 mi
• The Brenham Maifest — 0.4 mi
• Texas Confederate County Commissioners Court — 0.4 mi
• Washington County, C.S.A. — 0.4 mi