Grace University Lutheran Church
Grace University Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota
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Grace University Lutheran Church

1903–2003

Organized in 1903 in Minneapolis within the Swedish immigrant-dominated Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod, Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church (later Grace University Lutheran Church) constructed its present church building in 1915-1917 with the goal of serving the students at the adjacent University of Minnesota campus. For immigrant communities, churches functioned as social and cultural, as well as religious, institutions. The decision to build the new Grace Church and focus on a student ministry, therefore, marked a major commitment by the congregation to assimilate into American society and to adapt its mission in the face of new needs in the early twentieth century. As such, it is eligible for the National Register. Under Criterion C, the structure is architecturally significant as a refined example of the Late English Gothic Revival style, with ornamentation influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement and, perhaps, by Scandinavian design traditions.

By 1905, Minnesota as a state could boast of a Swedish immigrant population of over 126,000. Minneapolis and St. Paul together claimed almost 38,000 of these newcomers, allowing the Twin Cities to stand behind only Chicago as the largest urban concentration of Swedes in the nation. In Minneapolis, as across the state, these Swedish immigrants and their Swedish-American counterparts formed tight-knit communities centered around their shared cultural background. Swedish settlement in Minneapolis occurred primarily in the area surrounding Washington and Cedar Avenues on the west bank of the Mississippi River. This area, known as the Seven Corners neighborhood, had become the largest Scandinavian grouping in the city by 1910.

It was in this neighborhood that a small group of people joined together in 1903 to form the congregation of Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church within the Minnesota Conference of the Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod. Although the synod had been organized as a Swedish-American Lutheran group and actively recruited immigrants as members, its leaders recognized the need for English-speaking churches in urban centers as early as the 1880's, and had initiated efforts to establish at least one such group at their 1902 conference. As its name indicated, Grace Church was founded partly in response to this call and was, in fact, the first English-language congregation within the Augustana Synod in Minneapolis. One of the first acts of the tiny congregation, which numbered only ten, was to build a small frame church at 212 Fifteenth Avenue South. Within a decade, 65 adults and 12 children were attending services, which were held in both Swedish and English.

The year 1914 heralded significant changes for Grace Church, opening a new period of congregational activity. First, Grace Church joined forces with another Augustana Synod group, the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Sharon Church of Minneapolis, which was organized in 1909 on the east bank of the Mississippi River. Three years later, the synod gave Sharon Church property near the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota College, a synod-run school, with the intention that the congregation would minister to the nearby students.

Hoping to improve his church's finances before moving to the new location, Sharon's pastor, Dr. Gustaf Rast, led a campaign to unite his congregation with Grace Church. Throughout 1913, Rast's advances continually fell on deaf ears, as Grace Church congregants held firm to their desire for independence. The situation turned late in the year, when Grace's pastor accepted another call, and Rast left Sharon to minister elsewhere. In January 1914, both church councils agreed that the two congregations should cooperate to issue a joint call for a new leader. Their search ended in July, when the Rev. C. A. Wendell arrived to serve both groups.

Wendell proved to be exactly the catalyst needed to unite the two congregations and give them a renewed sense of purpose. Educated at Northwestern University, the University of Minnesota, and a private seminary, Wendell came to Minneapolis in 1914 with a background in teaching. Shortly after his arrival, the General Council of the synod's Minnesota Convention authorized Wendell to be the outreach pastor to the students at the U of M, a role that fit well with Sharon Church's mission.

By late autumn 1914, both churches had agreed to a formal union. As with all ministers within the Augustana Synod at the time, Wendell was fluent in both Swedish and English. Sunday and special services were held in Swedish at the Sharon Church, while Grace hosted evening English-language services. It was a small step, therefore, to combine the two congregations. A set of resolutions outlining the terms of the merger was drawn up and adopted in November. Working under the name "Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church," both parties agreed that English would be the official language of the church, although services would continue in Swedish. Furthermore, both congregations agreed to dispose of their individual properties, petition the Minnesota Conference and the Minneapolis Mission District for aid, and combine their fiscal resources to purchase a new church site "as near the Washington Avenue Bridge as possible."

As the search for money and a suitable location commenced, building and advisory committees were appointed to begin screening architects. Plans began coming together when, in March 1915, the Minneapolis firm of Chapman and Magney was retained for the project. The Grace Messenger, the congregation's monthly newsletter, confidently reported that the two men were among the "ablest and most progressive architects in this part of the country." Also, in the same month, the Minnesota Conference approved a donation of land by the board of the Minnesota College and agreed to pay off the debt on the property. The site, which lay at the corner of Harvard and Delaware Streets near both the college and the University, was touted as ideal: "precisely the spot we desired for the purpose. The Conference, then, has shown that it appreciates the need of a church in this part of the city and that it considers the work of such a church supremely important, mainly because of the students at Minnesota College and the University of Minnesota."

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Grace history (cont'd)

On May 11, Gottlieb Magney, one of the architects, presented the completed plans for the new building to the congregation, illustrating his talk with a series of "stereopticon slides" which allowed everyone to view the drawings. Commenting upon the unanimous acceptance of Magney's proposal, the Grace Messenger enthused that "the design is a work of art and requires no little artistic taste for immediate appreciation." At the time they won the Grace Church commission, Magney and his partner, Cecil Chapman, had been working together for only three years. The young business had in that time produced at least two other buildings in Minneapolis: the Sumner Branch Library at 6th Avenue North and Emerson Street (1915) and the Saxe Movie Theater at 36-40 7th Street (1914, later the Forum Cafeteria).

By September, all church services were being held in the chapel of the Minnesota College. A few months later, Sunday school classes moved into the Elim chapel, a small building erected at Talmadge and 24rh Avenues by the Minneapolis Mission District.

The original Sharon Church building had been sold the previous May, and the old Grace Church followed in August. Although the sale included the building and lot, the congregation held back the pipe organ, pulpit, altar, baptismal font, and hymn board for installation in their new temple. Also taken for inclusion in the new nave, at the suggestion of former Sharon members, was the original Grace Church cornerstone.

Construction of the new building got underway in late fall, with contracts being signed on November 24. A building permit was filed with the city of Minneapolis on December 16 for a 50 x 108-foot brick and reinforced-concrete church to be built by S. M. Klarquist and Son at an estimated cost of $30,000.

On June 4, 1916, the Grace Church congregation laid its cornerstone. Dr. P. A. Mattson, the President of the Minnesota Conference, officiated at the gala event upon invitation from Pastor Wendell. Sealed inside the stone was a copper box containing a number of items, including copies of local newspapers, an issue of the Grace Messenger, minutes of the last Minnesota Conference meeting, church event programs, English and Swedish Bibles, U. S. coins of every denomination, and a photograph of the first Grace Church structure. A few days later, the box taken from the original Grace Church cornerstone was opened, and the contents inventoried and placed in a new container to be set in to the wall of the nave inside the old cornerstone.

By the end of the year, construction of the church had progressed to the point where, on December 24, the anxious congregation could begin holding services in the partially finished basement of the building. One of the biggest problems facing the group was lack of furnishings. No furniture was included in the construction contract and the congregation had begun to run low on funds in August. Despite the temptation to use furnishings salvaged from the old churches, the congregation remained determined not to mar the artistic vision of their architects. Items donated to the church, such as the later candlesticks, were selected by Chapman and Magney to harmonize with the interior. With an eye to future, permanent furnishings, the congregation made do with temporary seats, light fixtures, and other "necessities."

The first photograph of the building appeared on the cover of the Grace Messenger in June 1917. The accompanying caption described the church as being "built of solid brick and fireproof. Gothic style throughout .. Seating capacity about five hundred ..Said to be the most beautiful church of its size in the Twin Cities." The following month's newsletter carried a front-page piece proudly describing the new building's interior.

"While the beauty of it all will be vastly enhanced by the final finish, it is possible right now to discern some of the more striking characteristics. And prominent among these is the fact that the disposition of the most important pieces of furniture - the altar, the pulpit, and the baptismal font - is distinctly Lutheran.. Another characteristic is that it is eminently "churchly." While it is poorly adapted to the various new-fangled "dofunnies" that too often desecrate the house of God in these latter days, it is admirably adapted to the one purpose for which a true temple of God should be built, namely worship. Everything about it calls for silent reverence and attunes the soul to prayer and holy meditation."

After holding worship services for almost a year while under construction, the Grace Church building was dedicated in a celebration December 9, 1917. Once again Dr. Mattson represented the synod, preaching the Sunday Swedish service and leading the dedication ceremony along with several area pastors.

Throughout the long process of constructing their new church building, the Grace congregation remained mindful of their mission to minister to students at the neighboring University of Minnesota and Minnesota College. In 1927 Grace Church marked ten years within the walls of its new building. Within that span of time, the congregation grew from about 257 to 446 members. During this period of increasing prosperity, the congregation continued to work on acquiring furnishings for the church. Light fixtures, for example, were finally installed by the main doors leading into the narthex in 1923. The Grace Messenger announced that the lights, which were designed by the Jacob Andersen Company and paid for by the Luther League, "remove the unfinished appearance which has hitherto marred the otherwise beautiful front."

Appropriate permanent light fixtures for the nave had to wait until the fall of 1927. When the congregation first moved into the building, they shielded the naked bulbs with hand-made tissue-paper "baskets." For the dedication ceremony, these were replaced by sturdier coverings fashioned from cardboard and wrapping paper, which remained in place until 1927 when they began to crack. A special committee appointed to find replacements first approached Magney to design the new fixtures, and architect Arthur Dahlstrom stepped in to do the job, coming up with a design combining wrought iron and glass elements. The Minneapolis firm of H. O. Koester Iron Works was awarded the manufacturing contract, and the Twin City Electric Company, responsible for the original wiring in the church, was hired to do the necessary modifications. The entire cost of the project was estimated to be $1,050.

In February 1942, the Grace Messenger proclaimed the welcome news, "Church Finally Completed." Changes noted from over the years included the installation of the nave's permanent light fixtures, and the move from "disreputable" wooden to "dignified" metal folding chairs. Among the church's finishing touches was a retable for the altar, and a new pipe organ which filled both instrument chambers at the front of the nave.