DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, every great building's got a story hiding behind the brickwork — and this one in Fort Worth, it's been hiding in plain sight for a long time. Cast your eyes on that tower, those arches, that fine fine brickwork, and let me tell you what it all means.
Back in 1905, Swedish settlers right here in the City of Fort Worth came together and organized the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Church of Gustavus Adolphus Synod. Think about that for a second — folks a long way from Sweden, planting roots in North Texas, and the first thing they do is build themselves a community of faith. That takes a certain kind of grit.
Seven years later, in 1912, that congregation raised up this sanctuary. Lombard Romanesque style, which is a fancy way of sayin' that whoever drew up those plans knew exactly what they were doin' — and the craftsmen who laid that brick, especially up in the tower and over those arches, they were showing off just a little, and they earned the right. The congregation worshipped here for decades, through Texas summers and hard times and everything in between, until 1957, when they moved on to another site.
By then they'd long since become known as Grace Lutheran. But this building — this sanctuary — it stayed. And it's still standin'.
Some things outlast the people who built them, and somehow that feels like exactly what those Swedish settlers had in mind.
What the marker says
The Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Church of Gustavus Adolphus Synod was organized in 1905 to serve Swedish settlers in the City of Fort Worth. In 1912 the congregation, which later became known as Grace Lutheran, constructed this sanctuary and held worship services here until it moved to another site in 1957. The Lombard Romanesque style building features fine brickwork in the tower and over the arches.