DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say — so let's get into it. You know, Austin has a way of paving over its own history in the name of progress, and the story of St. Martin's Evangelical Lutheran Church is about as good an example of that as you're going to find in this city.
We're talking about a congregation that built something lasting — twice — only to watch the Capitol complex roll right over it. Twice. Pull up a chair.
This one takes a minute to settle. Pastor Henry Merz — born 1842, died 1928 — was a missionary for the First Evangelical Lutheran Synod in Texas, and in 1883 he did what missionaries do: he gathered people together. Twenty German families, to be precise.
Now, that congregation didn't have a building right away. They made do, as people do — worshiping in homes, in stores, borrowing space from the First Presbyterian Church and from Gethsemane Lutheran. Humble beginnings for what would become something far more permanent.
The congregation acquired a lot at 106 East Peach Street — later known as 13th — just outside Capitol Square. And then they got to work. The cornerstone for their first church building was laid on December 21, 1884.
Mark that date. A few months later, on April 26, 1885, the new structure was dedicated with formal ceremonies. What they built was no plain meetinghouse.
The brick building was designed in a modified Gothic style, measuring thirty-six feet by fifty-eight feet, and it had a truncated bell tower rising above the Austin streets. A proper church. By 1929 the congregation had grown enough to need something more spacious, so St.
Martin's erected a new sanctuary at 1400 Congress. The original church building, the one with the Gothic lines and that truncated tower, was converted into state offices. And then came 1959.
The Capitol complex was expanding, and in the way of big things expanding, it didn't much ask permission. Both churches — the 1885 original and the 1929 sanctuary — were razed. Thirteenth Street itself was closed to make way for state office buildings.
The congregation that had once borrowed a corner of someone else's church, that had laid a cornerstone in December cold and dedicated their building the following spring, simply moved again — this time to new facilities at 606 West 15th Street. Twenty German families in 1883. Two buildings gone by 1959.
And the congregation still standing. That's the part the state office buildings can't pave over.
What the marker says
This property, once situated just outside Capitol Square at 106 East Peach Street (later 13th), was the original location of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church ("Die Deutsche Evangelish Lutherische Kirche"). Pastor Henry Merz (1842-1928), a missionary for the First Evangelical Lutheran Synod in Texas, organized the congregation in 1883 with 20 German families. They worshiped first in homes or stores and later borrowed the facilities of the First Presbyterian and Gethsemane Lutheran churches. The congregation acquired this lot in 1884. The cornerstone for the first church building was laid on December 21, 1884, and the new structure was dedicated with formal ceremonies on April 26, 1885. Designed in a modified Gothic style, the brick church building measured 36 feet by 58 feet and had a truncated bell tower. In 1929 St. Martin's congregation erected a more spacious sanctuary at 1400 Congress, and the original church building was converted into state offices. In 1959, as the Capitol complex expanded, both churches were razed and 13th street was closed to make way for state office buildings. St. Martin's moved to new facilities at 606 West 15th Street. (1979)