Historical Society program set on Russellville church

This Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013 photo shows snow covering Trinity Lutheran Church, located at 13007 Route C in Russellville, Mo.
This Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013 photo shows snow covering Trinity Lutheran Church, located at 13007 Route C in Russellville, Mo.

RUSSELLVILLE, Mo. - Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Russellville will be featured in the next Cole County Historical Society Getting to Know Our Communities series at 7 p.m. Thursday.

A guided tour of the church will be offered at 6 p.m.

Visitors are encouraged to bring photographs, memorabilia, scrapbooks and family histories to share.

For more information, call 573-353-6784.

The church was organized in 1895, primarily by German immigrants, Lincoln University history professor Roger Jungmeyer said.

The present church building, designed by Jefferson City architect B.L. Linhardt, was dedicated Aug. 4, 1912. A couple months later, the one-room school house, now the church office, was completed.

The parsonage had been built the year before and the current parish hall was added in 1940.

"It's unique to have a complete complex of buildings," Jungmeyer observed.

The inside of the church also remains much of the way it looked 105 years ago, he said. The iconography, stained-glass windows, altar, pulpit and baptismal font are all original. The organ, which plays prominently in the front of the sanctuary, recently has been restored.

The congregation formed in a small house down the street from the present church complex. They held services in German and taught their children in the same language.

At the turn of the 20th century, the congregation may have been one of the largest in the community, Jungmeyer said.