Platteville, WI. - The Wisconsin Historical Society placed the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Peace (Platteville, Grant County) on the State Register of Historic Places on August 20, 2021.

The German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Peace was constructed in 1856 utilizing stone blocks and handmade bricks hauled by teams of oxen. German settlement in Platteville began in the 1820s as Germans traveled from Wisconsin’s earliest settlements in Prairie du Chien and Green Bay to take part in the discovery and development of the region’s lead mines. German Lutheran services were first established in Platteville in 1855 when a pair of German Lutheran pastors traveled through the village and noted its distinct lack of services for the community’s German Lutheran residents. The German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Peace was constructed the following year using funds, land, and labor donated by members of the congregation.

The building displays modest Gothic Revival detailing that includes a steeply-pitched roof; pointed-arch windows and belfry openings; heavy, curved wood mullions in the front tower window; and steeply-pitched gablets around the base of the spire. The German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Peace is Platteville’s oldest extant church building and is still in use as a church today (the building is now owned by Platteville’s Free Methodist congregation). Although the building has undergone a number of interior remodeling efforts through the 19^th and 20^th centuries, as well as the construction of a side wing in 1940 to accommodate an ever-growing congregation, these alterations have not diminished the building’s architectural distinction as one of Platteville’s best representatives of early Gothic Revival church design.

The State Register is Wisconsin's official list of state properties determined to be significant to Wisconsin's heritage. The State Historic Preservation Office at the Wisconsin Historical Society administers both the State Register and National Register in Wisconsin.

To learn more about the State and National Register programs in Wisconsin, visit www.wisconsinhistory.org.