ST JOHN

     LUTHERAN CHURCH                       

    176th YEAR in 2024     

 

                   1848 - 2024

     

                  

 

          

 

Mount Prospect, Illinois was founded in 1917.

 

But long before there was a Mount Prospect...there was:

                        St John Lutheran Church.         

 

Many of the early settlers who came to live in the area which would one day be Mount Prospect were immigrants from various places within Germany. Among these German immigrants were Lutheran families, who in September of 1848 founded: The Evangelical Lutheran Congregation of St John of Elk Grove, Cook County, Illinois.

 

For many years it was know as St John Lutheran Church, Elk Grove (Township); until the area was annexed into the Village of Mount Prospect in 1970.

 

Some of these early families of St John are familiar to us today as there are streets and roads named after them: Linneman, Wille, Busse (Edward, William, George, Albert, Louis). 

 

Actually, those who founded St John Lutheran Church were later the founders of Mount Prospect: the Busse, Meyn, Moehling and Wille families. From these families were the first merchants, postmaster, mayors, store owners and major employers; the people responsible for the railroad’s importance to the Village, the organizers of the first school district, the donators of land for and the builders of Central School, and the creator of the first bank.  

St John constructed its first church building in 1848.

The second church built in1854 had a bell tower, which later housed a large copper bell, cast in 1874.

The third church building for St John was dedicated on September 4, 1892, and had a 100 foot steeple which was visible from miles away. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Interior of 1892 church)

This 1892 church, with both the exterior and the interior extensively remodeled in 1963, continues to serve     the congregation.

 

It is recognized as:      “A Proud Centennial Structure – Here from the start…”

 

Another building recognized as:    “A  Proud Centennial Structure”

 is the 1901 school building, located just north of the church. Built as a one room school house, it at one time housed 100 students of various grade levels, taught by a single school teacher.

 

St John Lutheran Church…

     Was founded 12 years before Abraham Lincoln                     became president.

     Was the first church and the first school in the area.

     It remains the oldest church building in Mt Prospect.

     It has the oldest cemetery in Mt Prospect, where many         of the first area residents are buried.  

 

With the completion of the third St John church building, the second church was taken down, moved and reassembled about 3 blocks north, to serve as one of the first English speaking public schools in the area.

 

St John is also the “mother church” to St Paul Lutheran Church and School, which was organized in 1912.

 

As a “gift” to the village in 1967 when it celebrated its 50th Anniversary, St John granted the Mount Prospect Historical Society use of the original 1901 school building for its first permanent home. The building was honored in 1976; and the Historical Society remained here for over 25 years.   

 

                         St John Lutheran Church

             “HERE from the start"... and before  

                                  1848 - 2023

                     

                           175 YEARS...

               Doing the Lord's Ministry