DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about St. John's Lutheran Church — known to its neighbors as the Rooster Church. Pull up a chair, because this one's got some miles on it.
It starts in the 1840s, when families packed up their lives in Germany and made the long crossing to Texas. Some of them would eventually find their way to the San Antonio area, and on December 26, 1857 — the day after Christmas, which tells you something about the dedication of everyone involved — sixty-four charter members came together to organize St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church.
The man who pulled it all together was the Reverend Phillips F. Zizelmann, a native of Württemberg, Germany, and the first Lutheran congregation in the San Antonio area was born. Now, they didn't have a proper church building yet.
They made do with a schoolhouse, which Pastor Zizelmann also happened to found as a day school, because apparently organizing an entire congregation wasn't quite enough to keep a man busy. He served that congregation until 1860, and before he moved on, he made sure to show up on March 5th of that year for the laying of the cornerstone of the first real church building. Then the Civil War came.
Eighteen sixty-one to eighteen sixty-five — four years that delayed just about everything in Texas, and completing that church building was no exception. But the congregation held on. By 1871, they had acquired a pulpit and an altar.
Four years after that, in 1875, a tower went up — and here's where the story gets its name. Perched atop that tower was a gilded rooster weather vane. Now, a gilded rooster spinning in the San Antonio wind is not exactly what you'd call a solemn sight, and the neighborhood apparently agreed.
It earned — and this is the marker's own wording — more amusement than respect. But it also earned the church an affectionate nickname that stuck like a boot in creek mud: the Rooster Church. By 1886, the congregation had outgrown the old structure, so they built a new edifice right around the existing one — wrapped it like a shell around what had been there before.
The tower got extended. And the rooster? Well, the rooster was replaced by a cross.
Make of that what you will. Time kept moving. In 1927, street widening forced the hand of history, and the old church building was razed.
A larger one went up in its place, and it was completed in 1932 — timed, with some deliberate pride, to coincide with the congregation's seventy-fifth anniversary. Sixty-four charter members, a schoolhouse, a cornerstone laid in the last quiet months before a war, a gilded rooster that made people smile whether it meant to or not — and a congregation that outlasted all of it. That rooster may be gone, but the name it gave this place is still spinning in the San Antonio air.
What the marker says
The 64 charter members of St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church included families who migrated to Texas from Germany in the 1840s. Organized on Dec. 26, 1857, by the Rev. Phillips F.Zizelmann (1824-1902), a native of Wurttemberg, Germany, this was the first Lutheran Congregation in the San Antonio area. Worship services were originally held in a schoolhouse. Pastor Zizelmann, who also founded a day school, served the congregation until 1860 and participated on March 5, 1860, in laying the conerstone for the first church building. The Civil War (1861-1865) delayed completion of the structure, but in 1871 a pulpit and an altar were acquired. A tower was added in 1875 and topped by a gilded rooster weather vane, which inspired the affectionate nickname, "The Rooster Church". In 1886, when a new edifice was built around the existing structure, the tower was extended and the rooster, which had earned more amusement than respect, was replaced by a cross. Because of street widening in 1927, the old church building was razed and a larger one erected. It was completed in 1932 to coincide with the congregation's 75th anniversary.