Augustana Lutheran Church is an

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is a mainline Protestant church headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The ELCA was officially formed on January 1, 1988, by the merging of three Lutheran church bodies. As of December 31, 2023, it ...

congregation located in

Sioux City, Iowa Sioux City () is a city in Woodbury County, Iowa, Woodbury and Plymouth County, Iowa, Plymouth counties in the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 85,797 in the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in Iowa, fo ...

, United States. The church building was listed on 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 ...

in 2006 as Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Church.

History

The first service for the congregation was held in May 1875. They initially met in a rented schoolhouse located at the corner of Third and Virginia Streets. Pastor P.A. Pihlgren and 17 men and women made up the congregation. They met in the rented building until the end of the year when the first church building for the congregation was completed. The

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

structure was built of wood at the corner of Fifth and Virginia Streets for $1,400. As the congregation continued to grow plans for the present church were begun in March 1887. The congregation bought two lots on the corner of Sixth and Court Streets for $7,500. The new church was designed in the

style by Sioux City architect Charles P. Brown. Construction was begun in 1889 and was completed early the following year for $35,000. It was dedicated on February 16, 1890. The building was constructed in brick and the three spires were originally covered in decorative wood shingles. The church was incorporated in 1909 as the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Church. Initially a

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurised air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a Musical keyboard, keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single tone and pitch, the pipes are provide ...

filled the

apse In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault (architecture), vault or semi-dome, also known as an ' ...

in the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

. In 1919 the organ was placed in the back of the church and the “Altar of Peace” was built in the apse. The Gothic styled altar was carved by a German

Prisoners of War A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...

from

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. A new

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, accesse ...

and

communion rail The altar rail (also known as a communion rail or chancel rail) is a low barrier, sometimes ornate and usually made of stone, wood or metal in some combination, delimiting the chancel or the sanctuary and altar in a church, from the nave and ot ...

were installed at the same time. The focal point of the altar was a painting of the Resurrection. The painting was replaced by a statue of Christ in 1970. The congregation has had four pipe organs in its history. The first was the Moline Organ that placed in the first church in 1882 and was used until 1887 when the Schuelke organ was installed. It was used in the present church until the Bennett organ was installed as a part of the 1919 renovation. The present Moeller organ was installed in 1958. By 1955, the exterior brick started to crumble due to water seepage. The congregation decided to stay in the old church. It was re-clad in new brick by Sioux City Brick and Tile Company, which did the original work in 1890. In 1959 the church corporation expired per Iowa law, and it was re-incorporated as Augustana Lutheran Church. The two-story brick education building was added to the back of the church in 1977. The church remains significant as Sioux City's last religious structure and congregation Swedish heritage and for its continuous association with its Swedish heritage. with

Architecture

The brick Gothic Revival structure features three towers on its main facade. The tall central bell tower rises to a height of , and flanking corner towers are in height. After the 1955 re-cladding of the exterior the main facade was greatly simplified with the removal of texture, patterning, and the four short

pinnacle A pinnacle is an architectural element originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire. It was main ...

s on the corners of all three towers. The

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

trim was also replaced at that time. A name and date stone is located above the central entryway. The changes gave the exterior a more mid-century interpretation of the Gothic style, whether that was its intention or not. The

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

is five

bays A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

in length. Each bay is divided with a brick

buttress 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 ...

and includes a large pointed-arch window. The steep

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

d roof features

louver A louver (American English) or louvre (Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, see spelling differences) is a window blind or window shutter, shutter with horizontal wikt:slat, slats that are angle ...

dormer A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a Roof pitch, pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the ...

s. A squared

extends from the back and surrounded by the education building. The education building itself is a

Modern Movement Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

style building whose brick matches that of the church.

References

External links

Church Website
{{Authority control Religious organizations established in 1875 Churches completed in 1890 Lutheran churches in Iowa Gothic Revival church buildings in Iowa Churches in Sioux City, Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Sioux City, Iowa Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa Swedish-American culture in Iowa 1890 establishments in Iowa