Property Record
670 COUNTY TRUNK HIGHWAY S
Architecture and History Inventory
| Historic Name: | St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church (St. Johanne's Kirche) |
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| Other Name: | St. John Lutheran Church |
| Contributing: | |
| Reference Number: | 17132 |
| Location (Address): | 670 COUNTY TRUNK HIGHWAY S |
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| County: | Fond du Lac |
| City: | |
| Township/Village: | Auburn |
| Unincorporated Community: | NEW FANE |
| Town: | 13 |
| Range: | 19 |
| Direction: | E |
| Section: | 26 |
| Quarter Section: | |
| Quarter/Quarter Section: |
| Year Built: | 1870 |
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| Additions: | 1871 |
| Survey Date: | 1974 |
| Historic Use: | church |
| Architectural Style: | Other Vernacular |
| Structural System: | |
| Wall Material: | Stone - Unspecified |
| Architect: | Lampert and Beck |
| Other Buildings On Site: | |
| Demolished?: | No |
| Demolished Date: |
| National/State Register Listing Name: | Saint John Evangelical Lutheran Church |
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| National Register Listing Date: | 4/15/1986 |
| State Register Listing Date: | 1/1/1989 |
| National Register Multiple Property Name: |
| Additional Information: | A 'site file' exists for this property. It contains additional information such as correspondence, newspaper clippings, or historical information. It is a public record and may be viewed in person at the Wisconsin Historical Society, State Historic Preservation Office. St. Johannes Kirche served immigrants from Pomerania, a region in present-day northern Germany and Poland. After King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia consolidated Lutheran and Reform churches into a state church in the early nineteenth century, many conservative Lutherans who opposed the union left Prussia to escape persecution. One dissident group founded this church in 1859. In 1871, it replaced its initial log church with this Gothic Revival expression of religious faith. Situated in a picturesque valley on the edge of Kettle Moraine State Forest, overlooking the East Branch of the Milwaukee River, St. Johannes Kirche looks like it was plucked from the German countryside. Split fieldstone walls give the Gothic Revival building a rustic appearance. Stonemason Florian Lampert laid the stones so that they decrease in size as the walls rise to the top of the truncated gable. Stones in rich hues of deep green, gray, pink, tan, olive, red, and black create a polychromatic mosaic, while buttresses of dressed blue-gray limestone and randomly laid fieldstone angle out from the corners. Brick trims its Gothic-arched windows and doorway. The stained glass in the round window above the door depicts an orb within a triangle, a symbol for God’s all-seeing eye. A small wooden bell tower with a pyramidal roof replaced the original tower, which lightning struck in the 1920s. The original forty-eight-inch copper-alloy bell, hung in 1899, remains intact. Stained-glass windows light St. John’s cozy, restrained interior. Its elliptical, pressed-metal ceiling was installed in 1902. PRAIRIE GOTHIC FIELDSTONE STRUCTURE IN WHICH BOULDERS GET PROGRESSIVLE SMALLER TOWARDS THE TOP. DOLOMITE BUTTRESSES AND BUFF BRICK WINDOW AND DOOR TRIM. |
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| Bibliographic References: | PERRIN 67, P 49 Buildings of Wisconsin manuscript. |
| Wisconsin Architecture and History Inventory, State Historic Preservation Office, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, Wisconsin |