The oldest church in Green Bay

GREEN BAY – “The Moravian Church, an outgrowth of a reform movement in 15th century Bohemia and Moravia, is one of the oldest Protestant bodies in the world. The Wisconsin wilderness was an open invitation to the Moravians who came in the late 1840s and provided the backbone of three distinct Moravian strongholds: Brown and Door counties, Jefferson County and Wood County,” a Wisconsin Historical Society essay stated.

“John Frederick Fett, a pioneer missionary for the Moravian Home Missionary Society, was sent to Milwaukee in 1848 and the following year, the first Moravian congregation in Wisconsin was formed among a group of Scandinavians. That same year, 1849, Moravian followers of Norwegian-born Andrew Iverson arrived in Milwaukee, and Fett turned his attention to the German community.”

“By 1890, there were 1,477 Moravians in Wisconsin, and their numbers increased by 84% in the next decade. Nils Otto Tank and his wife, both missionaries, came to Wisconsin to establish a religious communal colony based on Moravian principles near Green Bay. Tank named it Ephraim and in 1850, Iverson relocated the Milwaukee Moravians to the settlement.

“Differences between Tank and Iverson led to Iverson’s defection to the shores of Door County where he re-established the community and also called it Ephraim,” the historical society essay stated.
But, according to a 2002 article written by Paul Brinkmann for the Press-Gazette, Iverson was “dismissed as pastor at Fort Howard in 1883 for having an affair with 17-year-old housekeeper and church member Mary Nelson.”

“The clergymen separated — Rev. Tank remaining on the west side of the Fox and the Rev. Fett Coming over to the east. Thus originated the East and West Side Moravian churches,” a July 18, 1934, Press-Gazette article stated.

Fett conducted the first service in Green Bay on June 9, 1850, the day after he arrived from Milwaukee with the Tanks.

“Permanent organization of a congregation was not effected until 1851, however, when the Rev. Fett, after another unsuccessful attempt at home mission work in Milwaukee, returned to the city with about 100 Germans (and) organized the church,” the article stated.

“A former parish of the Rev. Fett in New York City contributed about half of the $1,500 collected for the erection of the church edifice, on two lots in the middle of Moravian Street, donated by William B. Astor of New York.

“On Oct. 20, 1851, the cornerstone of the proposed church was laid… a sturdy example of Colonial architecture with Gothic embellishments to distinguish it from the eastern ‘prayer meeting’ houses.”

“The Moravian Church on Jackson Square between Madison Street and Monroe Avenue was organized in 1851, with a full membership of 200, and was dedicated in 1852. Rev. J. F. Fett was the first pastor and remained with the congregation for 12 years. This clergyman taught a parochial school to which a number of the English-speaking residents sent their children in order that they might have the advantage of imbibing the German language in the classes of this excellent instructor,” Deborah B. Martin wrote in the History of Brown County Wisconsin Past and Present.

In the late 1950s, the congregation began planning for a new church, and on Dec. 4, 1960, the cornerstone was laid for a new east-side church at Allouez Avenue and Libal Street.

The original church building later served as the Martin Luther Chapel of the Grace Lutheran Church.

In 1972, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1980, the original church was set for demolition, but an anonymous donor stepped forward and provided $150,000 to purchase the building from Grace Lutheran and relocated it to the park for preservation.

On Oct. 20, 1980, 129 years later on the same day and the same hour that the limestone cornerstone was originally laid, the block was placed at the church’s future home at Heritage Hill State Park.

The church was re-dedicated in 1981 and is claimed to be the oldest church building in Green Bay.