On April 15, 2012, St. Paul Lutheran Church & School began celebrating 150 years of blessings and service for our church. Sixteen months later, on September 1, 2013, we culminated with another 150 year celebration for St. Paul Lutheran School, rejoicing at the opportunities to teach and share God's Word with children of our members, local residents and children of our military stationed at Ft. Leavenworth.
Lutherans held their first service in the Leavenworth area in a Methodist Church in Kickapoo Township on August 25, 1861. The preacher was a Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod pastor traveling to his home in Iowa from visiting in Junction City, Kansas. Following a winter of organization, St. Paul congregation was chartered on March 9, 1862.
Services were initially held in a public school building, later in the city courtroom, and then by Christmas of that first year in a new sanctuary located between 6th and 7th Streets on Delaware Street.
In 1863, the first Lutheran Parish School in Kansas was established. In 1866, due to growth, the church building was moved to the corner of 7th and Miami Streets and placed over a basement that housed the school. After a fire in 1911, the church was rebuilt and remains at that site today over 100 years old.
The members of St. Paul Lutheran Church & School have seen many changes over the years — new church buildings, new school buildings, and even a daughter congregation in Leavenworth chartered in 1955 — Trinity Lutheran Church, on 10th Avenue at the corner of Thornton Street.