DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the Texas Historical Commission put on the marker — so let's get into it. Now, Houston has always had a way of swallowing stories whole, burying them under concrete and progress until somebody thinks to put a plaque on what's left. But this one goes back further than most, and it started — like so many good Texas stories — with a group of German immigrants who had opinions about where to worship and were not shy about acting on them.
July 1, 1851. A man named the Reverend Caspar Messon Braun — born 1822, and a man who apparently had no intention of waiting around — led a small group of the faithful in founding the Erste Deutsche Evangelische Lutherische Kirche. Say that three times fast.
In English, that's the First German Evangelical Lutheran Church. The State of Texas made it official in September of that same year, issuing the church its charter. So by the time summer had turned to fall, these folks had a congregation and a piece of paper to prove it.
Their first home was a wooden building sitting on the southeast corner of Texas Avenue at Milam Street. You can picture it — modest, practical, the kind of structure that says we are here and we are staying, even if it doesn't shout about it. Fifty years passed.
Half a century of Sundays, of sermons and hymns and the slow turning of a community finding its place in a growing city. Then, in 1901, under the leadership of the Reverend William L. Blasberg — born 1862, died 1935 — the congregation picked up and moved.
New location: the northwest corner of Texas at Caroline. New building: red brick and sandstone. That sanctuary stood and served until 1926, when the congregation sold it and set their sights on something grander still.
Now here is where the story gets a certain kind of weight to it, because the man they called to lead this next chapter was the Reverend Detlev Baltzer, born 1889, died 1962. And the architect he hired was one Joseph W. Northrop, Jr. — a man who had come to Houston specifically to oversee construction of the original Rice Institute, which you and I know today as Rice University.
So this was not some fellow with a pencil and a dream. This was a man who had already left his mark on Houston in a serious way. For general contractor, they brought in James West.
J.C. Nolan and the Star Electric and Engineering Company held the sub-contracts. The whole operation was a serious undertaking, and what they built together was something Houston had not quite seen before on a church campus.
Northrop went with North Italian Romanesque styling. Terra cotta roof tiles on the sanctuary, the education building, and the parsonage. A campanile — that's a bell tower, for those of us who didn't grow up in northern Italy — connecting the sanctuary to the education building.
The walls went up in interlocking concrete tiles, then faced with buff brick and trimmed in white sandstone. The kind of building that makes you slow down when you drive past it. That seven-bay arched portalis on the education building leads you into a space that holds a stage, sports facilities, auditoriums, and classrooms.
The congregation wasn't just building a place to pray — they were building a place to live as a community. Inside the sanctuary, the details are something else entirely. The pulpit and altar were carved by master woodcarvers from Oberammergau, Germany.
The pews and chancel furnishings were designed by Northrop himself and built by the American Seating Company. The stained glass windows came from the Browne Window Company. And up in the choir loft sits a pipe organ built in 1903 by Kilgen and Son.
But the detail that stops me every time — the one that reaches back through the whole long arc of this congregation's life — is the bell hanging in that campanile. It was forged in 1880. And it has rung at every single place this congregation has ever called home.
From that first wooden building on Texas and Milam, to the red brick sanctuary at Texas and Caroline, to this North Italian Romanesque campus still standing today. The same bell. The same voice, calling the same people — or their children, or their children's children — to the same purpose.
Some things in Texas get torn down. Some things endure. And sometimes, if you're paying attention, the very same bell that rang in 1880 is still ringing, telling you that a community has been here a long, long while and has no intention of going quiet.
What the marker says
First Evangelical Church On July 1, 1851, a group led by the Rev. Caspar Messon Braun (1822-1880) founded the Erste Deutsche Evangelische Lutherische Kirche, or First German Evangelical Lutheran Church. The State of Texas issued the church's charter in September of that year. The first sanctuary was a wooden building on the southeast corner of Texas Avenue at Milam Street. In 1901, under the Rev. William L. Blasberg (1862-1935), the congregation moved to the northwest corner of Texas at Caroline, to a new red brick and sandstone sanctuary. After selling the second structure in 1926, the First Evangelical Church, as it became known, purchased this site. Under the leadership of the Rev. Detlev Baltzer (1889-1962), the congregation hired architect Joseph W. Northrop, Jr., who had moved to Houston to oversee construction of the original Rice Institute, now Rice University. James West was general contractor for the new church campus, and J.C Nolan and the Star Electric and Engineering company held sub-contracts. Northrop's North Italian Romanesque styling features terra cotta roof tiles on the sanctuary, education building and parsonage, as well as a campanile, or bell tower. The buildings were constructed of interlocking concrete tiles covered with buff-face brick and white sandstone trim. The campanile's bell was forged in 1880 and has rung at each of the congregation's places of worship. The tower connects the sanctuary to the seven-bay arched portalis of the education building, which houses a stage, sports facilities, auditoriums and classrooms. The sanctuary's details include pulpit and altar made by master woodcarvers from Oberammergau, Germany. Pews and chancel furnishings, designed by Northrop, are by the American Seating Company. The choir loft houses a 1903 Kilgen and Son pipe organ, and the stained glass windows are from the Browne Window Company. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2002