St. John’s: Constancy and Change
By Michael Bridgeman
This is the second in an occasional series of posts focusing on a single site and how it has changed over time. Click images to enlarge.
In 1951 St. John’s Lutheran Church in Madison, “established the principle that any expansion of facilities should be at our present location. We would be a central city congregation, attempting in as many ways as possible to serve people in the central city.”[1]
At the time of this declaration, the congregation was nearly 100 years old and had been at home at the corner of East Washington Avenue and North Hancock Street for 83 years. Today, 71 years later, St. John’s is on the same site with big plans to remain.
St. John’s church, 1962
St. John’s proposal, 2022
If the future unfolds according to a proposal in the works, as soon at 2025 St. John’s would be housed in a new, ten-story high-rise with space for local nonprofits and more than 100 affordable housing units. When I read about the plans last December in the Wisconsin State Journal, it prompted me to look into St. John’s past, present and future.
Looking Back
The story goes back to 1856 when St. John’s was organized as a German Lutheran congregation, the year Madison obtained its city charter. Two years later the congregation, part of a growing German-speaking community in the city, built a small meeting house on Main Street. In 1867, when the congregation numbered 46 members, they purchased their current property on East Washington Avenue to erect a new church. When the church was dedicated in June of 1868, it was “thoroughly finished in a neat and substantial manner,” as reported in the Wisconsin State Journal. The wood frame building measured 32 by 60 feet and cost $3,000 to build with an additional $1,000 for the lot. A bird’s-eye view shows the modest church three blocks east of the Capitol Square on East Washington Avenue, near the right edge of the image below.
Bird’s-eye view, 1867 (detail)
In 1889, St. John’s updated and remodeled their church. The Wisconsin State Journal wrote that, “The church as rebuilt is a very handsome edifice. Its interior appearance was thoroughly and neatly improved as was its exterior.” A Sanborn fire insurance map from 1902 tells us that the updated frame church (below), had a 30-foot spire on its main façade, there was a school in the basement, heat was provide by stoves, and lighting was gas. The building to the left of the church was purchased in 1897 and became the parsonage. An “up-to-date and commodious” brick parsonage was built on the same site in 1922.
Church and parsonage, ca. 1900
A completely new church building was erected in 1906. A fire insurance map noted that the larger brick building had a 70-foot spire, steam heat, and modern electric lighting. The Neo-Gothic Revival church had steps leading up to three entry portals on its primary façade with the spire to the right and a shorter crenellated tower to the left. Both sides of the nave had pointed-arch windows, seen in the undated interior photo below. Interior furnishings that remain in place today include the painting of Christ and Peter on the Sea of Galilee (left), the elaborate wooden altar in the apse, and stained glass windows; those on the right still catch morning sunlight. [2]
St. John’s church in 1906
St. John’s interior photo, undated
A parish education building was added on the southwest side of the church in the 1950s, replacing the parsonage. In 1961-1962 the church was dramatically reconfigured. Having little room to expand, St. John’s created a new façade that came out to the East Washington Avenue sidewalk with a new entry on the left side. Steffen & Kemp, who had recently designed Midvale Lutheran Church in Madison, were the architects for the decidedly modern addition, with its long-sloped roof and soaring stainless steel cross. The North Hancock Street elevation retained the gothic-arched windows and brick walls of the 1906 structure.
Façade reconstruction, 1961-1962
St. John’s today
St. John’s community service goes back more than 100 years. In the aftermath of World War I, the congregation welcomed orphaned French children and later supported refugees from Uganda, Vietnam, and other troubled nations. St. John’s helped found Oakwood as a home for the aged in 1946. The basement space once used for education was, for 35 years, home to the Off the Square Club, a men’s shelter operated by Lutheran Social Services. Other outreach activities backed by St. John’s include criminal justice reform, domestic abuse intervention, LGBTQA+ support, and the Backyard Mosaic Women’s Project.
Dick Severson, a member of the Redevelopment Committee, said that St. John’s did an internal remodeling in 2009 that reduced the size of the sanctuary to create a gathering space. On one side, windows were cut into the façade to look out over East Washington Avenue. Inside, the gathering space looks into the sanctuary through a clear glass wall. “We learned we could function well in a smaller space,” Severson said, a lesson that is being applied to plans for the future.
Looking Ahead
“We have always altered our buildings for the sake of mission,” said Peter Beeson, lead pastor of St. John’s. Their next building will expand the congregation’s ability “to care for the needs of our neighbors, especially those who are poor or working class, “ Beeson said. That is seen most dramatically in plans for affordable housing. Of 130 apartments in the ten-story building, 108 (or 83 percent) will meet Dane County standards for affordability. The aim is to support those who are increasingly priced out of the downtown housing market—restaurant, retail and service sector workers—who will be able to live close to where they work.
St. John’s perspective, 2022
A portion of the main floor will be dedicated to the church sanctuary, signaled by the colored glass windows at the corner where the current church stands. There will be space for offices, a kitchen, rooms for art and music, as well as community rooms. About a third of the first floor will be set aside for partner agencies to use 24/7, Beeson said. In addition to the dedicated areas for partners, Beeson hopes the new St. John’s will be used by neighbors, non-profits, even those advocating at the capitol. “It will function as a community space, as churches have historically,” he said.
St. John’s from the rear, 2022
Mark Binkowski, the lead developer working with St. John’s, said this would be the first truly affordable housing near the capitol since Madison Mark was completed in 2005. Apartments will be open to renters who earn less than 60 percent of the Dane County median income ($55,680 for a family of three). Binkowski said there are a lot of layers to financing the structure, including public and private funds. Applications are under review with city and county affordable housing programs. A submission for low income tax credits to the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority is due in December with an announcement expected in April. “The timeline might slip a little it,” Binkowski said, though everyone I spoke with hopes St. John’s will break ground next summer. Construction will take about 18 months to complete.
St. John’s has been an enduring presence in central Madison since the congregation was established in 1856. Its physical presence has changed many times in 166 years and today St. John’s is preparing itself, and Madison, for another dramatic change.
- - - -
Special thanks to Office Manager Barb Meyer for her time and assistance as I learned the story of St. John’s Lutheran Church.
- - - -
Notes
[1] St. John’s Lutheran Church 1856 to Present, a historical document St. John’s Lutheran Church. Madison, Wis.: 1981.
[2] Lead Pastor Peter Beeson said the congregation plans to conserve and reuse what that can from the current interior; details have yet to be worked out.
Image Credits
St. John’s church, 1962 — Architect’s illustration from St. John’s Lutheran Church booklet. Undated.
St. John’s proposal, 2022 — Illustration by Potter Lawson Inc., courtesy of St. John’s Lutheran Church.
Bird’s-eye view, 1867 (detail) — Ruger, A, and Chicago Lithographing Co. Madison, Wisconsin. [Chicago, Chicago Lith. Co, 1867] Map. https://www.loc.gov/item/73694546/.
Church and parsonage, ca. 1900 — Ninetieth Jubilee, 1856-1946. St. John’s Evangelical Congregation. Madison, Wis.: 1946.
St. John’s church in 1906 — Postcard, author’s collection.
St. John’s interior, undated — Ninetieth Jubilee, 1856-1946.
Façade reconstruction, 1961-1962 — Photograph from St. John’s Lutheran Church files
St. John’s perspective, 2022 — Illustration by Potter Lawson Inc.
St. John’s from the rear, 2022 — Illustration by Potter Lawson Inc.
All other photos by Michael Bridgeman