This Month in Rochester History

One of the Detroit area newspapers once ran a photo feature about Rochester's Walnut Boulevard, calling it an "avenue of churches," and noting that the Episcopalian, Baptist, Methodist, Congregational, Roman Catholic, Lutheran and Nazarene meeting places were located within a two-block section of the street. The typical "small town" portrait that the newspaper painted had been true for decades, but as the population of post-war Rochester grew and brought more people into the pews, the Walnut Boulevard churches strained to accommodate them. Sixty-two years ago this month, on March 28, 1948, the first of those congregations began the process of moving away from Walnut Boulevard to a more spacious location.

The members of St. John Lutheran Church, who had been meeting in a converted residence on the corner of Second and Walnut since 1935, had outgrown their quarters and voted to build a new church and school facility. Three years earlier, the congregation had purchased the former Oscar Brewster property at the corner of Helen and Fifth (later University Drive), including a residence and barn. A new building was planned for this site which included a sanctuary, two classrooms, a fellowship hall, kitchen and office spaces, at a total cost of $130,000. The former Brewster residence was used as a parsonage.

Although excavation of the basement and laying of water and sewer pipes had already begun, the congregation chose to conduct a ceremonial groundbreaking on Easter Sunday, March 28, 1948. Two years later, construction was complete and the facility was dedicated. The building that was started in 1948 is still a part of the St. John campus today, although it is now "surrounded" by additions made in 1958, 1967, 1986 and 2001 and looks much different that it did in the accompanying photograph.

St. John was the first to outgrow Walnut Boulevard, but not the last. St. Philip's moved in 1951, St. Paul's in 1959, First Congregational in 1960, First Church of the Nazarene in 1965, St. Andrew's in 1969, and First Baptist in 1973.