Zion Lutheran Church

The Lutheran synod archive's file on Zion fills in what became of the missions on this plaque. St. Paulus, begun around 1914 in Sunset Heights, first met in a butcher shop and built on donated land in 1915; in 1917 it merged with Zion, and its building was moved here. Zion dedicated a new church on August 26, 1951. A Zion-sponsored task force of 1983 led to a Hispanic mission, Iglesia Evangelica Luterana El Redentor, which in 1989 merged with North Side Lutheran, another of Zion's early missions, as El Redentor de Northside.

What the plaque says

Zion Lutheran Church Prior to 1914, Houston only had two Lutheran congregations, both downtown in this sprawling city. The mission board of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Iowa recognized the opportunity to establish congregations in Houston's suburbs. In May 1914, the reverend Hans F. Ander was sent to Houston by the mission board. By December 1914, the Zion's Evangelical Lutheran Church was organized with sixteen charter members from the community of Woodland Heights. In February 1915, the members purchased a lot at the corner of Pecore and Beauchamp to build their church home. Over the several decades and under the leadership of Reverend Ander, Reverend Luther M. Schliesser and reverend George Reck, the church had a huge impact on the area as membership grew to 1,600 by 1950. In 1987, the church's name was changed to Zion Lutheran Church. Through missions and financial assistance, Zion helped numerous congregations in and around Houston and the surrounding areas. From the beginning, the church helped organize mission Lutheran churches in the area, including Saint Paul's Lutheran (1915), North Side Lutheran (1917), Park Place Lutheran (1937), Faith American Lutheran (1947) and Advent Lutheran (1961). Soon after founding, a group of women formed the Ladies' Aid, an organization dedicated to serving the Woodland Heights Community. Similarly, a men's group formed in 1932. Over the years, the church supported a mother's day out program, a preschool, daycare, food pantry, family counseling and support, youth choir, seminary scholarships and much more that contributed to the congregation's commitment to service and Harris County. (2017)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sam Houston Park and the Heritage Society — 2.1 mi
  Ten historic buildings gathered in a downtown park below the skyscrapers, among them the 1870 house of the Reverend Jack Yates, built five years after emancipation.
• Buffalo Soldiers National Museum — 3.8 mi
  A museum in Houston's 1925 Light Guard Armory that tells the service of Black soldiers from the Revolutionary War onward, built from one veteran's thirty years of collecting.
• Emancipation Park — 3.8 mi
  The Third Ward park that freedpeople bought for Juneteenth in 1872, rebuilt in 2017 on Emancipation Avenue and still the center of the city's June 19 celebration.
• Rothko Chapel — 3.9 mi
  An octagonal chapel open to all faiths, built by the de Menils around fourteen dark canvases by Mark Rothko, with Barnett Newman's Broken Obelisk standing in the pool outside.

More markers nearby

• Woodland Heights Community — 0.2 mi
• Hortense Sparks Malsch Ward — 0.3 mi
• Mollie Bailey — 0.4 mi
• Emmanuel Baptist Church — 0.6 mi