All Peoples Gathering Place Church

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Epiphany Lutheran Church was organized in 1903 and incorporated in 1905 as one of a number of English-language Lutheran churches established between 1890 and the start of WWI. Before then, nearly all of the city’s Lutheran services were offered in German or one of the Scandinavian languages. Though the majority of the neighborhood was German, the church served the English-speaking children and grandchildren of German immigrants.

Construction began in 1905 and was completed in 1907. The earliest services were held in the basement in 1906. The architect, John Roth, Jr. (1866-1944) was born in Cedarburg and worked in Milwaukee from the mid-1890s through the 1920s. His work was primarily residential but he designed three churches in the city: Epiphany, St. John’s Methodist (1899) at 3^rd and Concordia and Reformation Lutheran (1908) at 35^th and Garfield.

The foundation is made of local limestone and the walls are Bedford limestone from Indiana. It has a castellated bell tower with no steeple. It is also one of the first churches in Milwaukee to use the Tudor arch. The typical Gothic arch curves uniformly but a Tudor arch almost resembles human shoulders with a more graceful curve from the central point and a more dramatic curve where it meets the walls or openings. This gives the arch a less pointed appearance than is typical.

A 1925 addition by architect Hugo C. Hauser expanded the church footprint substantially. The church purchased the lot next door to accommodate the enlarged worship space and Sunday school classrooms. The seamless addition matches the material, form and proportion. Even the stained glass windows match the size, shape, tracery and colors.

All Peoples was founded in 1991 as a multi-cultural congregation with roots in the Harambee neighborhood. They see themselves as the next chapter in a story of worship that began in 1905. Though they consider themselves a neighborhood church, their congregation and ministry extends beyond into the greater Milwaukee area.

Researched by HMI Staff