St. Peter's Evangelical Lutheran Church

German immigrants founded St. Peter’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in the 1850s. Many pastors served the congregation during its early years. In 1863 the seventeen-member congregation built its first wood-frame church. For a time, Pastor Friederich Boeling from Immanuel Lutheran Church in Walden-burg intermittently served the church. He helped draft the church’s 1872 constitution, which admitted it to the Missouri Synod. This allowed the congregation to call Pastor Friederich Wilhelm Arendt, who began a Christian school. In 1875, Pastor Carl Lohrman led the construction of a second church. A list placed inside the cornerstone recorded fifty-six members. In 1938 the congregation made plans for the construction of a combined church and school. The outbreak of World War II delayed construction until 1945. Forty-eight congregation members served in the military during the war. Detroit architect Walter Maul designed the church in the neo-Gothic style with a smooth-face brick veneer trimmed with Indiana limestone. The congregation contributed more than eleven thousand volunteer hours to its construction. The cornerstone was placed on October 24, 1948. Pastor Albert P. Knoll officiated the church’s dedication in 1950. The congregation later expanded the school to accommodate a growing student population.