St Paul's Lutheran Church

Identified by the caption on the card as simply “Lutheran church,” this is the second St. Paul’s Lutheran church in Manawa. The first St Paul’s church was a log-frame school house, which the congregation bought in 1878 and met in until they replaced it with this brick building in 1890. I’m not sure, but I think the building in the background may be the original log-frame school house.

The upper photo looks like it dates from the slew of post cards that came out around 1902-1908. The lower photo would appear to show a snow-covered church yard, which would make it the only post card photograph made in winter that I’ve seen.

If you had driven down Depot Street before 1957, you would’ve found this steepled church about midway between the railroad tracks and the Methodist Evangelical church. After 1960, you would have seen the building I knew as St. Paul’s, a much larger, more modern-looking brick and stone building that stood in about the same spot.

(My family moved to Manawa in 1969, so I’ve never seen this older building.)

Every single gosh-darned word © 2004-2006 Dave Okonski