Charleston’s historic district is home to hundreds of significant places of worship, including St. John’s Lutheran Church. It dates back to 1742 when Dr. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, the father of the Lutheran Church of America, spent time in Charleston giving services and teaching catechism. By 1752 the city’s first Lutheran congregation was organized, making it the oldest Lutheran congregation in Charleston, South Carolina and one of the earliest congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
The congregation of St. John’s Lutheran Church conducted their services at the French Huguenot Church while their first house of worship was being built. The wooden building with a steeple, which was located behind the present site of the church, was completed by 1763. The construction of the Clifford Street church, a stately rectangular brick building with a towering steeple, took place from 1816 to 1818 under the direction of Pastor Dr. John Bachman. The church underwent restorations after being damaged by wartime attacks, the 1886 earthquake and hurricanes.
|
