St. John’s Lutheran Church - Abbottstown, PA
N 39° 53.266 W 076° 59.024
18S E 330386 N 4417183
In a town originally settled by Germans (among others), this Lutheran church has been a mainstay stay of this Lincoln Highway community since 1830. A huge cemetery can be found to the rear and left side of the church.
Waymark Code: WMCJ00
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Date Posted: 09/10/2011
Views: 5
Lots of nice features about this church, architecturally speaking including an open air bell tower rising over the left side with an actual working bell. The one feature missing is an account of the Church's history which the church saw fit to ignore and neglect. The church is very traditional looking with a huge A-roof in front and a large, rectangular building reaching far to the rear.
The building is made of brick with a big, red, block stone foundation and has rows of Gothic shaped windows on both sides, along the bell tower, cut out in the brick on the way up to the top and a giant one in the front. The church entrance and cornerstone are at the base of the bell tower. There is ornamental brick patterning half way up the structure as well.
There are two white stones in the brick, one on either side of the front door located under the bell tower. The stone on the left bears the date 1889, and the one on the right, 1830. I cannot reconcile why there are two separate dates. The stones are white, rectangular blocks, the date is cutout and raised from the back in relief. The church and congregation have been in business since 1760, predating this building by 70 years!
The cemetery outdates the church building and features a very eclectic array of monuments, headstones and memorial with several tall obelisks, zinc headstones (white bronze). It is well spread out to the rear and to the left. I counted approximately 550 interments. Several of the dates inscribed on the worn stones were form the early 19th century with some of the interments born in the 18th century, during the Revolutionary War period.
Address
St. John's Lutheran Church
100 East Water Street
Abbottstown, PA 17301
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