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Trinity Evangelical
Lutheran Church History
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The first Lutheran work in Towanda, as
is recorded in any case, was done by Pastors H.G. Deisher and J.D. Keener
of Dushore Parish, who held services in the home of M/M Elwood Kunes in
1940-42. However, Trinity Parish
grew from house-to-house visits in 1955, initiated and carried out entirely
by the Rev. Donald R. Gebert of St. John Church, Sayre, and the Rev.
Charles A. Souders of Dushore. We
are forever grateful for their zeal and leadership.
Regular services were begun in
October, 1955, in Christ Church (Episcopal) where we worshiped until year
end, then in the Sylvania Club rooms on Park Street, (where Ben Franklin is
now, and next to the Reuter law offices), until we moved into Trinity
Chapel in August, 1956. A service of
transmittal to Pastor Hart was held in Christ Church
on the 4th of March, 1956.
Trinity
Church was instituted
the 22nd of April, 1956, the Rev. Maurice J. Hart becoming
mission developer, then first pastor.
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The
Church was incorporated the 23rd of July, 1956. Also in 1956, the Edward Laning Elliott house
and lot were acquired, where services were held in Trinity Chapel until
1965. While temporary, Trinity
Chapel was an attractive and satisfactory place of worship.
The Benjamin property at the corner of
Grant and Main Streets was purchased in 1958 to complete our holdings to
the corner.
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In
1962 an intensive and successful building fund drive was conducted by the
Lutheran Laymen’s movement. This
solicitation exceeded what we thought our capabilities were. For a number of years an active building
fund continued financing the church building. Salary aid was received for
ten years from the Board of American Mission.
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1964 was a busy year, with both the
contract let for $84,353, and the ground breaking in June; and the laying
of the date stone and blessing of the outside cross in November. The new church was dedicated on Trinity
Sunday in June 1965. It was designed
by Donald Duncklee of Allentown, and built
by George Leo of New Albany,
a member of this parish. Mr.
Duncklee followed a contemporary style, appropriate to our large lot with
large trees. Usually a mission congregation builds a parish house first,
but we were able to build our church because we had Elliott House.
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The bell tower was erected in 1982,
and the bells moved from their temporary place.
For years the beautiful and unique
round church with the flat roofline caused headaches periodically as it
leaked. In 2001 this problem was
solved. A slanted roof was added to
the structure, eliminating the leaking windows that skirted the base of the
round roof.
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In place of the clear windows, backlit
stained glass windows were installed and dedicated on May 18, 2003.
The fine pieces of art were
designed and installed by Mezalik Design Studio, LLC.
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Click Picture To See All Windows
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Later in that same year, a corner of
the property was beautified with the installation of a rock garden along Grant Street. For years the corner was an eyesore of
fill. Roger Blatz presented the
concept of the rock garden and soon (with the hard work of Al Homan and
many other volunteers) the corner was blossoming with flowers and
landscaped with well positioned rocks.
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