St. Luke's Lutheran, Lima

I was not able to get any history information on this church. If anyone has anything they can offer regarding church history, please post!

At a busy intersection in downtown Lima, stands this masterpiece:
Wonderful tower that stands at the point that was the back of the original, square-shaped church. It appears that I may have missed the cornerstone, in the wall at the bottom of the tower.

The sanctuary extension was built on in ... ... just seamlessly ... and the parish house went up in ...

Upon entering the sanctuary (the doors are at the sides, where the original doors were), this is the delightful sight you're greeted by ...The view from in front of the altar looking back ...Beautiful stained glass in every one of those clerestory windows. Assuming they were made to match the older windows at the time the addition was put on. The addition gave the church a cruciform shape.Beautiful ...

High groin-vaulted ceiling provides a lovely framework for the two large windows at either end of the transepts.

Look at those pipes!

The large window at the back, circa 1958, serves as a tribute to the life and ministry of St. Luke.This Resurrection window over the altar is stunning -- not merely the figure of Christ, but the colors and tracery!
The right-transept window backs up to the parish house, so the lighting behind it is ceiling lighting -- but hey, they could have ripped it out and put in a hallway or something!

St. Peter ...

... and St. Paul.

The left-transept window is strikingly visible from the street.Moses ...

... and Aaron, someone rarely seen in window architecture.

Raised cut glass at the center of his robe ...Closeups of the magnificent tracery and cut-glass ornamentation.I've never seen anything quite like this window over the center of the crossing ...

Hoping for more information about this marvelous church!

former St. Luke's Lutheran, Toledo - Northgate Community Church

I wonder how long it's been since a Lutheran has entered this church.
I have almost no historical information to go on here; only an old newspaper clipping at the downtown library reporting the dedication of the Sunday school wing in 1959. It appears that the St. Luke's congregation disbanded about 1980. The county real estate transfer card says that the building passed into the hands of the synod at the time, and from there was sold to the regional district of the Nazarene church. Over the next 20 years or so, I'm told the building fell into a state of disrepair. I don't know the time periods during which it actually housed an active congregation, but when Northgate Community Church finally bought the building about 6 years ago, I'm told it was a wreck. It was being used for drugs, prostitution, possibly dogfighting, and who knows what else. The Northgate congregation thankfully cleaned it up and made it into a home again.
As you enter the narthex, these two glowing windows greet you:
And as you enter the sanctuary, the first thing your eyes fall onto is this breathtaking sight ...

And at the other end of the sanctuary ...

The church is actually quite small. It is rectangular, but the chancel runs along the side of the rectangle, while these gorgeous windows cap the ends.
The altar area is very small, with a pulldown video screen that hymn lyrics are projected onto. This little altar stands underneath a larger hanging cross that, unfortunately, can't be seen because of the screen.
I stuck the camera behind the edge of the screen and fired the flash just to see what I'd get.
There are two hexagonal bays on the Bush St. end of the church. Aside from embellishing the most visible end of the building, I pondered what those were originally meant to enclose.
Here's how they look on the inside. Perhaps one of these bays may have been a baptistry and the other a sacristy. Now, the one at the rear contains the sound and light boards; and the one at the front houses a set of drums!

This window is over a side door next to the Gethsemane window.

There are only two of the original pews left, both in the Sunday school wing that is now used for a meeting room. This long pew is slightly curved; the pews were laid out in a semicircular arrangement facing the altar. The other pew is a short deacon's pew. The engraving on the pew ends is lovely. I'm told the pews were in too poor a condition to save, that people would sit on them and get dumped onto the floor. These two were the only ones kept.

These two niches once held stained glass windows like the ones in the narthex. They must have been broken out. The openings are boarded on the other side, in the wall of the outer staircase that was probably wide open for a long time. Now these niches hold Bibles and hymnals, and the staircase is behind glass doors.



It's always sad to hear about a congregation that had to disband, but this building lives on as a home for a small but warm and vibrant Christian Missionary Alliance congregation. If anyone knows anything whatsoever about the history of the former St. Luke's Lutheran congregation in Toledo, please let me know.