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History of the Grand Ave United Methodist Church
A comprehensive (and fascinating) history of the Grand Avenue Church was
written and published in 1966 by Freda Matthies and Alma Maechtle. While
this history is too long to place directly on the web site, we
can link to it (188 Kb in PDF format). We encourage one and all to read this history and, in
the sprit of preservation, to download a copy to your hard drive and keep it for
future generations. In 2007, as part of the celebration of the congregation's
150th anniversary, Marguerite Lueptow rewrote and substantially expanded the
1966 history, bringing it up to date and adding numerous historical and current
photographs. We also link
to this history (4 Mb, also in PDF format) and encourage its downloading and
retention. Please be patient with this download because, depending on your
connection speed, it may take a while. The material below is summarized from the
earlier 1966 history and
from other sources with updates from recent years. We also have a detailed
listing of all our pastors since 1918 from the Wisconsin Conference.
| Evangelical United
Brethren |
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What is now the Grand Avenue United Methodist church began in 1852 as an
assemblage of Christians living in what was then the frontier country of
Southeastern Wisconsin. Early meetings were held in homes and ministerial
support was provided by circuit riders who would visit Port Washington as
frequently as possible, but often only a few times each year.
The early congregation was painfully small by modern standards -- only
a dozen or so families, but it remained vital and persevered. Some
early services were held in a small one-room school house at the corner of
Jackson and Wisconsin Streets, on land that was later occupied by a
vocational school and is now the home of the Port Washington Police
Department. |
GAUMC Collection
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A
church was erected on the corner of Jackson and Milwaukee Streets
in 1862. It was described as
"a
neat little brick building with partitioned pews on both sides of
the center aisle and a plaque above the door that read Evangelische
Gemeinschaft 1862". The
congregation incorporated August 18, 1865. |
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The first organ was purchased in 1896,
but the congregation felt that they had outgrown their small church and
voted to expand. An acre of
land on Grand Avenue was purchased for $1000 and a new parsonage was built
in 1899 for $1500 by William Runkel, and Charles
and Herman Nehf.
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GAUMC Collection |
GAUMC Collection |
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The north side of the Grand Avenue lot
was more than 12 feet below the level of the street, which posed problems.
The rear or south end of the lot, however, was a high gravel
hill, which supplied the needed fill. Much
volunteer labor was expended to fill in and around
the buildings.
In 1900, with the new parsonage complete, C. A. Christiansen
of Milwaukee was hired to
build a new church building next to the new parsonage. In 1904 the
old church at the corner of Jackson and Milwaukee Streets was sold to the
Catholic Knights who, in turn, sold it to the Port Washington School Board.
Later on, horse sheds were built on the
remaining gravel hill to the rear of the church. In 1907, when the electric interurban was built through the
city, it took some of the church
property on the south side of the church, and in exchange gave us
the frontage between the parsonage and the next property east. |
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The church
was first known as Ozaukee Mission, then the Evangelische
Gemeinschaft. During the Second World War, when it was unpatriotic to
be associated with anything German, a new sign was made and placed over
the old one reading Grand Avenue Evangelical United Brethren Church.
The first
English services were held in the church
in 1912 and that year the church received its first piano.
In 1922 the Evangelical
Association united with the United Evangelical Church, becoming the
Evangelical United Brethren.
The
Ladies Aid purchased the first gas stove for the church in 1927. The first public dinner we have on
record was in 1926.
The charges for
this chicken supper were: Adults
50˘ a plate, children 35˘.
In
1942
a stoker was installed at the cost of $300.
In 1943 a Hammond organ was purchased for $1800 and stained
glass windows were given
as memorials by a number of members. |
GAUMC Collection
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Photo by Jan Young
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The church’s 100th anniversary occurred in 1957.
A Century Club had been formed for the purpose of raising money to
build an educational unit and more than $30,000 had been raised.
The new Educational Unit was constructed at the rear of the church
property at the cost of $86,000 under the supervision of architects Satre and Senescal of Sheboygan. Cornerstone laying occurred on August 23,
1959. The building was completed and dedicated in May 1960.
(The photo shows the Educational Unit with a new roof applied in the fall of
2005.)
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Then,
in 1964, it was decided to build a new sanctuary on the same site
as the original building which had served the congregation
for 65
years.
The last service in the old church was held on April 24, 1966 and the
first one in the new building almost exactly a year later, on April 23,
1967.
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Photo by Jan Young |
GAUMC Collection
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The Grand Avenue Garage, which was immediately east of the church, was
purchased in 1966 to provide parking space for the growing number of parishioners
who drove cars to church. The large back yard of the garage provided
parking, but the building itself was retained as a rental property for many
years, providing income needed to offset the mortgage expense. |
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The Methodist Church and The Evangelical United Brethren
Church joined and became The United Methodist Church in 1968. Our
congregation thus became the Grand Avenue United Methodist Church.
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By 1976 the old parsonage had become outmoded. It was costing a great
deal to maintain and was making it difficult for the congregation to
attract the best pastors. A new parsonage was purchased on the north side
of Port Washington and the old one was demolished in 1980 by two
church members. The site of the old parsonage was converted into
lawn, improving the appearance of the church and greatly increasing its
visibility from the street. |
| A fire was discovered in the church about 9PM on March 11, 1984 by a
policeman on routine patrol. The fire, which we later found had been
caused by an electrical short in the narthex ceiling, heavily damaged the narthex
and did much smoke damage to the office and sanctuary. The $100,000
cost was covered by insurance and repairs were completed in a matter of
months, while we held Sunday services in our Fellowship Hall. |
GAUMC Collection
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Photo by Jan Young
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| In 1988 we offered the old Grand Avenue Garage building to the Port
Washington Fire Department as a
training exercise. Some memorable photos were taken when they burned
it, ultimately to the ground. The old underground gas storage tanks
were carefully removed and the entire property is now devoted to parking. |
| The property immediately west of our Church was for many years a dairy
store where milk and ice cream could be bought. It was extensively
remodeled and expanded into a full-line family restaurant and operated for
a number of years, but eventually closed.
Partly through the generosity of the owners, we were able to purchase the
property in 1997. It has provided
additional parking space and has allowed our Sunday School classes to
expand. |
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Our pastors, since 1918, have been:
| Pastor |
From |
To |
| M
Uebele |
1918 |
1918 |
| J
S Davis |
1918 |
1918 |
| M
Uebele |
1919 |
1920 |
| Joseph
A Steen |
1920 |
1920 |
| M
Uebele |
1921 |
1921 |
| Noah
Bess |
1922 |
1922 |
| M
Uebele |
1922 |
1924 |
| E
W Gassmann |
1925 |
1930 |
| G
H Nickell |
1931 |
1935 |
| G
E Zellmer |
1936 |
1941 |
| O
V Hayne |
1942 |
1942 |
| Charles
Rota |
1943 |
1947 |
| Gordon
R Bender |
1948 |
1952 |
| Peter
Retzlaff |
1953 |
1957 |
| Leslie
Pardun |
1958 |
1960 |
| Alvin
W Ebert |
1961 |
1961 |
| Verlin
Wandrey |
1961 |
1964 |
| Robert
Boettcher |
1965 |
1968 |
| Thomas
Garnhart |
1969 |
1973 |
| Duane
E Andrus |
1974 |
1976 |
| Lee
D Downs |
1977 |
1978 |
| Claude
W Bartlett, Jr. |
1979 |
1982 |
| Arthur
M Arveson |
1983 |
1988 |
| Neil
A Piepenberg |
1989 |
1992 |
| Robert
L Gossett |
1993 |
2002 |
| David
N Guse |
2003 |
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History
of the Wisconsin Conference
We are a member church of the Wisconsin Conference of the United Methodist
Church. The Conference history is best expressed by links to it's site.
History of the United Methodist Church
The global history of the United Methodist Church is similarly best told by
United Methodist Communications via their web site.
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