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Friends, Society of, Minneapolis

The first Friends (Quaker) meetings were held in Minneapolis in 1855 in the home of Joseph Canney. in 1860, the congregation erected a wooden framed meetinghouse at 8th Street and Hennepin Ave. with the establishment of the congregation on June 15, 1863.  In 1883, they congregation established a mission in a chapel they built at 10th Avenue and 24th Street. In 1886,  the congregation, according to Atwater's History of Minneapolis spun off a new group that moved the chapel building Stevens Avenue between 29th and Lake Street. 

Frogtown, St. Paul

Frogtown began to be settled as early as the 1860s when French Canadians first moved into the area. Although they were quickly subsumed by other immigrant groups, particularly Germans, their presence can still be seen in street names.

Gemilus Chesed Congregation, Minneapolis

A breakaway group from Kenesseth Israel, Jewish immigrants from Tavrig, Lithuania, established their own congregation in 1900 naming it after their “hometown” Anshei Tavrig, Men of Tavrig.  The congregation dissolved in 1913 and its synagogue located at 601 North Fourth Street was purchased by a newly formed congregation, Gemelus Chesed (Bestowal of Kindness) that grew out of a free loan association and was moved to 815 Girard Avenue North. The congregation’s small stucco building that seated around 400 people has since been demolished.  

Gethsemane (Protestant) Episcopal Church, Minneapolis

This congregation was organized as Ascension Church on April 4, 1856. Led by then-deacon David Knickerbaker, the church became so closely identified with the Reverend Knickerbaker that it was often called Knickerbaker's church.  The congregation met for several months in a hall on Helen Street (later renamed 2nd Avenue South), and erected a church at 5th Street and 7th Avenue South and dedicated on August 5, 1856, the first religious building erected in Minneapolis.  In 1857, the congregation added a bell tower to the building and changed its name to Gethsemane.

Golgotha Evangelical Lutheran Church, Minneapolis

Founded in 1908, this congregation met in a church at the corner of 32nd Street and Pleasant Avenue South in the Powderhorn Park neighborhood.  The congregation merged with Bethlehem Evangelical Lutheran Church in 1923, but continued to meet in its own church.  In 1927, the merged congregation moved to a new church at 4100 Lyndale Avenue South, and the Golgotha Church was sold to the St Francis Liberal Catholic Church.

Gospel Mission, Minneapolis

This organization was a home mission founded on October, 31, 1887, by Protestant missionaries, William A. Petran, Mrs. William A. Petran, H. J. Peterson, W.A. Grant, and William Ashton.  The mission was located in the heart of the immigrant area at 29 Washington Avenue South.  It was relocated in 1931, to 35 Washington Avenuew South.  

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church, Minneapolis

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church was an outgrowth of an effort to establish a congregation for the hearing impaired German immigrants. In 1898 the first services for the hearing impaired were held at the YMCA located on 10th and LaSalle in downtown Minneapolis.  Three years later regular worship services began to be held at Trinity Lutheran Church with about forty attending representing a diversity of ethnicities and denominations.

Gustavus Adolphus Lutheran Church, Minneapolis

A daughter church to Emanuel Lutheran Church, the congregation was established in 1914.  Emanuel Lutheran Church rented a chapel at 27th Avenue and Lincoln St. NE for a Sunday School.  As the Sunday School grew, Emanuel purchased the chapel and two lots for a separate congregation originally named Gustav Adolf.  A white frame building was erected on the site with a seating capacity of 175.

Sources: http://www.gachurchmpls.org/about-us/history/

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About This Project

This project documents the congregations and houses of worship that developed within the earliest neighborhoods in Twin Cities between 1849 and 1924.. Among the topics explored are communities, ethnicity and identity, relationships among congregations, intra-congregational interactions, class structure, and the role of houses of worship.