English Lutheran held its first service on Trinity Sunday, June 5, 1898, in the Lienlokken Hall above the Tausche Hardware Company on Fourth Street. The building now houses Fayze's Restaurant. The church was organized the same year with seven charter members.
Today, the congregation has more than 1,300 baptized members. The congregation worshipped at three buildings, including the original building at West Avenue and Ferry Street, which was built in 1901 and was destroyed by fire in 1920.
The second church, at 16th and Cass Streets, served the congregation from 1925 to 1991. The congregation moved into its present complex on 16th and King Streets in 1991. A major addition and remodeling project was completed in 2012.
Key events in the life of the congregation include the election of [Stefan] Guttormsson in 1987 as the first bishop of the La Crosse Area Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the death of the Rev. Harold Stoffel and his wife, Bertha, in an auto accident in 1961. Stoffel was pastor from 1936 to 1961.
(excerpts from La Crosse Tribune article, June 6, 1998)
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