St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Streator will celebrate 140 years

St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Streator will celebrate its 140th anniversary with a celebration worship service at 10:15 a.m. Sunday, Sept. 25, and a meal to follow in St. Paul’s Fellowship Hall.

Reservations were required for the meal.

St. Paul’s was formed in Streator on May 28, 1882.

Inspiration came from a group of believers who banded together three years earlier to form the Long Point Lutheran Church. Their minister, the Rev. J. Hossfeld, was instrumental in helping the Streator group accomplish its goal. Services were in the old Park Presbyterian Church building, and Sunday school classes met in the old Armory building.

In 1883, the Streator congregation purchased for $900 the vacant Primitive Methodist Church building on East Bridge Street. Within four years, this building became inadequate because of a rapidly growing church body. A new and larger structure was erected on the site in 1888. The pastor and his family lived in the church basement until late 1893, when a parsonage was purchased at 207 S. Park St.

In 1920, with an expanding church body and a desire for a more modern facility, the congregation voted to replace the wooden structure. At a cost of $25,000, a new brick building was erected on the site. Several years later, a brick home adjacent to the church was purchased for use as the new parsonage.

As the congregation continued to expand, the church board approved the purchase of property at 509 East Broadway in July 1956. Within a year, a total of $110,831 had been pledged by congregation members, and it was voted to begin construction of the building that serves today. Final services were at the Bridge Street church on Nov. 2, 1958.

The new church edifice did not include a pipe organ. However, as a result of an organ fund started in 1975, a pipe organ was installed by the 1982 centennial year. The total cost for the organ, built by W. Zimmer & Sons from North Carolina, was $130,000.