Bethelem Lutheran Church is an historic stone

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

located at 412 South White Street in

Round Top Round Top or Roundtop may refer to: Communities * Kirkwood, California, formerly Roundtop, a census-designated place * Round Top, Pennsylvania, a community adjacent to the Gettysburg National Military Park * Round Top, Texas, a town * Roundtop, Wes ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

Construction

The building was designed by Carl Siegismund Bauer, a

German Texan Texas Germans () are descendants of Germans who settled in Texas since the 1830s. The arriving Germans tended to cluster in ethnic enclaves; the majority settled in a broad, fragmented belt across the south-central part of the state, where many be ...

, who also served as the head

mason Mason may refer to: Occupations * Mason, brick mason, or bricklayer, a worker who lays bricks to assist in brickwork, or who lays any combination of stones, bricks, cinder blocks, or similar pieces * Stone mason, a craftsman in the stone-cutti ...

. The church was built from May 6 to October 28, 1866. Bauer's sons and family as well as the local citizens contributed the labor to raise the church. The sandstone was quarried from Cummins Creek bounding the church site on the west. Eastern Red Cedar from the creek bottom were harvested and hand hewn into beams for the framing timber. The side walls are reinforced by iron tie rods across the interior added in 1873 and supported by 4 exterior stone

buttresses A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient (typically Gothic) buildings, as a means of providing support to act a ...

on the south side.

Pipe organ

A cedar pipe organ built by John Traugott Wantke, also a German Texan, was dedicated on January 13, 1867, the day the congregation was formally organized. The organ made primarily from local cedar was restored in 1966 and 1995 and it remained in use. The organ is one of the most historic in the state, the largest of six organs Wantke built, and one of three surviving . The organ received certificate number 56 from the Organ Historical Society on May 24, 1987.

History

It is one of the earliest stone churches built in this section of Texas and has been used for services continuously since its construction in 1866. It is the oldest Lutheran church sanctuary in Texas. The first pastor was J. Adam Neuthard. It was recorded as a Texas Historic Landmark in 1965 and added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

on August 10, 1978. The church celebrated its sesquicentennial on October 23, 2016.

Photo gallery

References

External links