First Worship Facility
On May 21, 1899, Rev. Lill and several individuals who had been affiliated with the Lutheran Church elsewhere held a meeting in Alva. They met in an upper room of the Kavanaugh & Shea building (Over the store with the white striped awning in the following picture)
which is currently occupied by LaDEEda’s, on the corner of College and Flynn.
There they adopted a constitution, thus creating Zion Lutheran Church of Alva.
Under the leadership of their new pastor, the little congregation continued to grow and have an impact on the community. Strengthened by the Lord’s Word, and desirous of a more suitable place for worship than the upper room of a store building, they met to consider the building of a church. During a meeting on October 9, 1900, William Breford, John Wagner, and J.E. Schaefer, Sr. were elected to locate lots upon which they might build.[1]
First Church Building
Following the committee’s recommendation, two lots were purchased on the corner of Third and Maple for the price of $50 from a Mr. J. Bauers at the direction of the building committee appointed November 4, 1900, which consisted of J. Wagner, Wm. Quast, J.H. Schaefer, Sr., Wm. Breford, and Ernst Wamhof,
M.T. Long was hired to erect a frame building for $665 on November 18, 1900 when Long’s bid was accepted. They obviously wasted no time in the building’s construction as it was dedicated on December 30, 1900, only a year and a half after the organization of the church, and only one month after the project was undertaken.
This first church building, modest in its appearance, also served as a schoolhouse and a parsonage. Imagine the pastor and his family having to make sure that their underwear was put up and breakfast finished before the school children arrived in the morning.
The growth of the congregation soon indicated the need for a larger church building. On April 3, 1910, it was therefore decided that the construction of a new church be undertaken. That building committee consisted of: N. Arfmann, G. Kletke, John Rauh, Sr., F.N. Meyer, and T. Wagner. As Mr. Arfmann could not continue to serve, John Meyer was elected in his place.
The old frame church was moved to the corner of Second and Maple, where it continued to serve as the school, so that the new church could be erected on the spot now left vacant. This frame building, long since sold, has been converted to a private residence and sits at 11 Locust Street.
The Red Brick Church
The red brick church, which remained in use into the early 1970s, was built in 1910-11 at the cost of $9,260.31. The building was erected with all donated manual labor. The bricks were laid by Mr. Bill Arfmann, who lived southeast of Alva and made the trek in from the country every day, along with E.G. Kletke and others. Reputedly, Rev. Herman Meier paid for the bricks which amounted to $600. Where a minister in Oklahoma in 1910 would come up with $600 dollars is unknown.
As can be seen from the photographs, what they ended