Special thanks to Rev. Bill Moorhead for his contributions to this article.

There have been many churches in the Near North Side neighborhood since its establishment in the earliest years of the city of Omaha starting in the 1850s. Some stayed throughout the decades and changing demographics. However, many churches left the neighborhood when their congregants moved. One such congregation is St. Paul Lutheran Church, and this is its history in North Omaha.

Forming a Church

North Omaha’s St. Paul Lutheran Church was founded to serve German immigrants in the Near North Side neighborhood in 1887. Arriving in the city to work for the Union Pacific Railroad and in warehousing, Germans had their own language and longtime Lutheran roots, and believed they needed their own congregation to serve them close to their homes.

First meeting in the Our Savior Norwegian Lutheran Church at North 26th and Hamilton Street, originally the congregation held only German language services. this initial location was in a neighborhood with many other congregations belonging to Methodists, Baptists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and even other Lutheran congregations. The church’s first minister came in 1888, and was Rev. J. Herr, and the congregation was without a building of its own for the next several years.

Growing and Moving

For the reason that the neighborhood was too packed, in 1892 a new church and parsonage was built at North 28th and Parker Streets on the outskirts of the Near North Side. Focused on extra land at the site, the First Lutheran Church of Omaha built a school here as well and sold it to the St. Paul congregation. The church was dedicated in December of that year.

In 1913, separate services were held every Sunday in German and English.

On Easter Day, March 23, 1913, a massive tornado swept through North Omaha after church services ended and a wedding happened in the building. There were eight choir members rehearsing in the basement of the church when the monster attacked, but nobody was hurt. However, the church was completely obliterated by the tornado. Without insurance on the building, the congregation expected to have a hard time raising money to recuperate. However, a collection was held in Lutheran churches across Omaha, and more than $32,000 was raised.

During their reconstruction the church succeeded in never missing a service. Separate services continued being held in English and German, with each being hosted by different churches in the surrounding Long School neighborhood.

Growing and Moving Again

Soon after, the congregation decided to move northwards, and in December 1913 they laid the cornerstone of their new church and school and parsonage at North 25th and Evans Street in the Kountze Place neighborhood. The church and school were designed by Omaha architect William F. Gernandt (1872-1943) and finished in 1914. Originally a resident of the surrounding Kountze Place neighborhood, architect Gernandt was renowned for his work designing courthouses, schools and homes throughout Nebraska. His work on this church was equally renowned and drew praise from many quarters when it was finished.

Designed in the Gothic Revival style, the church building features large stained glass windows, pointed arches, rib vaults, flying buttresses and ornate decoration throughout the exterior and interior of the building. In addition to the church, a “parish house” for the minister and others was built along with a schoolhouse. The entire structure is remarkable in the surrounding neighborhood.

This address was more prestigious and reflected a middle and upper-middle class bearing for the congregation; it also preceded the white flight that struck St. Paul’s old neighborhood starting immediately after the lynching of Will Brown in September 1919. Their new location was in a neighborhood with strict redlining though, and its location likely seemed insulated enough to keep the white congregants feeling “safe” from the African Americans who lived nearer to their former location. In the 1940s, the church was added onto because of its growing congregation.

For more than 40 years, St. Paul Lutheran Church and its school flourished.

The End of St. Paul’s

By the late 1950s, the St. Paul’s congregation faced the integration of the neighborhood surrounding the church and the phenomenon of white flight had begun to strike. With church members selling their homes and moving further west, the church faced reality in 1956 and began planning its move.

Saying they outgrew their space, the church began hunting for new property. They reported 600 members in 1957. In 1958, the congregation sold their Kountze Place building and officially moved west. Originally meeting at the Central Park School at North 42nd and Grand, they planned on building a new facility at North 50th and Grand Avenue. The St. Paul Grade School continued meeting in the old facility at North 25th and Evans Street.

Dedicating the new school in August 1959, the building cost $110,000 to construct. The St. Paul Lutheran Grade School had four classrooms and a sanctuary that sat 175 people.

After several years of the church meeting in the new school’s basement, in 1966 they broke ground on a new church building at the site. Operating in the growing neighborhood for the next 30 years and the congregation’s membership peaked in the late 1970s. However, in the 1980s the surrounding demographics changed again. Church attendance started to decline and never recovered, with many families left the congregation for other churches in west Omaha.

Determined to appeal to the new African American neighbors, the church stayed open in the area and accepted non-Lutheran students in the school. The school’s population grew, and by 1996 was nearly double from four years earlier.

Then in 2019, after 132 years, St. Paul’s Lutheran Church closed permanently. The congregation merged with several others and is now called the River of Life Lutheran Church, and is located in along Military Avenue in the Benson neighborhood.

The unique and beautiful building at North 25th and Evans Street has been empty for several years and continues to languish without attention.

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