Nearest city Milwaukee NRHP Reference # 87001736 Added to NRHP 25 September 1987 | Built 1885 Opened 1885 | |
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Location 1204, 1213, 1214, and 1215 S. Eighth St.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin Architectural style Gothic Revival architecture Similar Saint John's Evangelic, Christ Evangelical Lutheran, Trinity Evangelical Lutheran, Cathedral Church of All Saints, Calvary Presbyterian Church | ||
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 (Evangelisch Lutherischen St. Peters Gemeinde) was founded February 14, 1860 by German immigrants, with 34 charter members. In 1861 they bought a frame building for their first church and moved it to the corner of South Eighth and West Scott Streets. In 1866 they built a small brick-clad Gothic-influenced church designed by John Rugee. In 1873 they added the frame parsonage which still survives, then the school in 1879. 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 100 feet tall and the other 165 feet 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.