Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church

Castro's colony was settled mostly by Catholic Alsatian farmers, and St. Louis, built in 1844, was the first church in Medina County. Zion's church went up in 1853 for the Lutheran Germans who had been worshipping in homes. One account places the first public school classes in the county in the Zion church in 1854, three years before the date the marker gives. By 1856 the town around it supported three large stores, a brewery and a water-powered gristmill, and farmers around it sold produce to the army posts.

What the plaque says

Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church Many of the German settlers who arrived here in the 1840s were Lutherans who kept their religious traditions by meeting for worship in their homes. The Rev. Christian Oefinger sailed from Bremen, Germany, arriving in Galveston. From there he made his way to Castroville. Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church was organized on January 29, 1852, with 12 charter members, their families and other organizers, most from Castroville and surrounding communities. Construction of the church building began in 1853, with a loan for $400 secured from the general synod. Congregants provided the rock, sand and timbers. A parsonage was erected next to the church using the remaining stone. The church prospered and became an important part of the Castroville community. Pastor Oefinger held Castroville's first public school classes in the Lutheran church building in 1857. The parsonage was replaced with a frame building in 1922. The original stone church served the congregation until 1939, when it was replaced by a new brick building. An education annex was dedicated in 1949. The "Fuos Haus" beside the church building was purchased in 1959 for use as a church office. In 1960, the church purchased a building formerly known as the George l. Haass Store. It was restored for use as a youth building. The frame parsonage became a Sunday school building in 1996. Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church remains an active ministry within the community, following the example set forth by the members' ancestors throughout the church's history. (2000)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Landmark Inn State Historic Site — steps away
  A store and stage stop at the Medina River ford in Henri Castro's Alsatian town, with a mill race under the ground and rooms you can still rent for the night.
• Casa Navarro State Historic Site — 23 mi
  The adobe and caliche-block home of José Antonio Navarro, a native-born signer of the 1836 declaration, and the last remnant of the Tejano neighborhood called Laredito.
• Mission Concepción — 23 mi
  A stone church dedicated in 1755 that has never fallen into ruin, its convento ceilings still painted, and the ground where the Texas Revolution's fight for San Antonio began.
• King William Historic District — 23 mi
  Mission farmland turned German merchants' quarter on the San Antonio River, renamed in World War I, then saved by a neighbor who restored fourteen houses, starting with his own.

More markers nearby

• Site of the Homestead of Henri Castro — steps away
• Henri Castro — steps away
• First County Courthouse — steps away
• General Wool and the Chihuahua Road — steps away