Bethlehem Lutheran Church - Round Top, TX - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

Per a Texas Historical Marker on the front of the building:

"Bethlehem Lutheran Church
Magna Gloria Deo

A center of Lutheran faith in Fayette County. Dedicated Oct. 28, 1866 with Rev. Adam Neuthard as first pastor. Unique pipe organ of cedar built by Traugott Wantke. Stone construction shows German architectural style.

Recorded Texas Historical Landmark - 1965 "

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A full description of this 1866 structure and its historical significance is truly best described by its original NRHP nomination form (available as a PDF download on the Texas Historical Commission's Atlas website). It states:

DESCRIPTION

The setting for the church is particularly beautiful and somewhat medieval in character. The churchyard is surrounded by a sandstone wall which was built between 1867 and 1874, enclosing a cemetery with many old and elaborate markers of early Round Top families. The churchyard wall curves down a hill to the southwest with a panoramic vista through many ancient native trees.

The building is a one-story rectangular, stuccoed ashlar sandstone structure, 30'6" on the three-bay front by 55' in length. The cedar shingled roof is gabled with a rear jerkinhead and a single-stage cedar-frame belfry with louvered openings and a pyramidal roof. There are stuccoed stone flying buttresses on the southwest wall. The main entry facade has double panel doors with a single row of seven lights above, flanked by 6 over 6 double-hung sash windows, with 6 over 6 sash windows to the choir loft directly above those flanking the main entrance. The fenestration of the two 55' facades includes three equi-distant pairs of 6 over 6 sash windows, each pair separated by a narrow vertical post. The rear entrance has a single centered wooden door with a single 6 over 6 sash window above, the stained glass lights forming the shape of a cross. All of the doors and windows are very simply trimmed with wood.

The church is open plan with a choir loft containing an historic handmade cedar pipe organ above the vestibule at the entrance. The ceiling is barrel-vaulted.

Sandstone for the building was quarried from the banks of Cummins Creek, which bounds the church site on the west. The cedar framing timbers were cut from Eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana) trees growing in the Cummins Creek bottom and hand-hewn into beams. Total cost of the structure was $2,400.00.

In 1873, iron tie rods were inserted across the interior of the building to strengthen the walls. The four stone buttresses were added to the southwest side of the building in 1881. No other major additions or changes have been made to the exterior of the building.

Inside the church, a 51-note keyboard cedar pipe organ was installed in 1867. The organ was begun on June 24, 1864, according to a date left on one of the cedar pipes. The organ has eight ranks of pipes,
mostly made from local cedar timber, and has tracker action. The original altar and pulpit were dismantled and a modern altar installed during the early 1960's.

The building and grounds are well-kept by the congregation and generally in good condition, though the stone walls of the building are developing cracks which will need attention. The church will continue to be used for weekly religious services and occasional public concerts on the organ under the joint sponsorship of the congregation and The University of Texas at Austin Winedale Museum.

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE

The Bethlehem Lutheran Church, its simple style evincing its strong German heritage, was the social and religious center for the German settlers in the Round Top area during the last half of the 19th century. It also housed the first school in Round Top from 1866 to 1878. The church's 1867 cedar pipe organ, thought to be the first made in Texas, has continued to benefit both its parishioners and those who attend the occasional public organ concerts held in the church.

According to church records, the cornerstone was laid May 6, 1866, and the new building was dedicated October 28, 1866. The church served as the focus of the religious and community life of the German settlers in the Round Top area. Its dominating position at the end of the town's old main street symbolized the traditional authority of the German Lutheran pastor over his flock.

The town of Round Top was laid out in 1852 by a German immigrant, Edward Henkel, at the place where the roads from Brenham to Austin and Houston to Austin crossed Cummins Creek, and it quickly became a trading and social center for both German and Anglo-American farmers in the northeastern corner of Fayette County. A Lutheran congregation was organized at Round Top in 1855, but it was not until 1861, when Pastor Adam Neuthard arrived, that a move to build a church and school was initiated. Pastor Neuthard was born in Lauterbach, Baden, September 11, 1828, and graduated from the Lutheran seminary of St. Chrischona, in Switzerland, in 1860. He came to Texas as a missionary and immediately set about organizing a permanent congregation and school in Round Top. The building of the structure was delayed by the economic deprivations of the Civil War, but in the Spring of 1866, Neuthard persuaded Carl Siegismund Bauer, an experienced stone mason from Weisa, Saxony, and the builder of several other important structures in Round Top, to oversee construction. For five months Bauer, with his sons and sons-in-law just retumed from the war, other kinsfolk and people of the community worked together as volunteers to complete the structure.

Another native of Germany, John Traugott Wantke, built the cedar pipe organ still occasionally used by the congregation. The organ was dedicated by the congregation on January 13, 1867. Two other organs built by Wantke are known to be in existence. One i s in a New Braunfels museum and the other is owned by Otto Hofmann of Austin, an organ builder himself. The organ has been cited as a "Historical American Organ" by the American Organ Historical Society.

Round Top is a Lutheran community with a strong religious tradition and Bethlehem Church has been its religious and social center for many years. Between 1866 and 1878 it served as a classroom for the pupils who attended Pastor Neuthard's school, the only school in the area, and from 1878 to the early 1960's it was the classroom for Lutheran confirmation classes, which play an important role in the social life of the Round Top community. The church and churchyard are a major attraction for the twenty thousand tourists who annually visit the many historic preservation projects in and near Round Top. Since 1972, it has been the site for a series of organ concerts sponsored by the nearby University of Texas at Austin Winedale Museum. It is a structure with social and historic significance that transcends its purely religious role.

Street address: 412 S White St Round Top, TX USA 78954 County / Borough / Parish: Fayette County Year listed: 1978 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Architecture/Engineering, Event Periods of significance: 1850-1874 Historic function: Religion (Religious Structure; Religious School) Current function: Religion (Religious Structure) Privately owned?: yes Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Secondary Website 1: [Web Link] Secondary Website 2: [Web Link] Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

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