First St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church-Chicago
The history of First St. Paul's started in 1843 when George Schaiver, Karl Teschner, John Pfund, Charles Stein, B.A. Beyer, H.H. Rantze, Arnold Kroeger, William Frank and Jacob Letz organized themselves into a church council and met to obtain a lot and build a church building. The first 20'x60' church on the southwest corner of Ohio Street and LaSalle Avenue was completed in 1844. (A plaque was placed on the site in 1937 by the Chicago Historical Society.) However, the congregation did not have a pastor intil 1846 when Rev. Christian August Thomas Selle of New Lisbon, Ohio accepted their call. There was a division of the congregation in 1848, caused by doctrinal disagreements, with the Lutheran contingent being in the minority. Thus, they had to seek a new church building which they erected on Indiana (now Grand) Avenue between Wells and Franklin Streets and dedicated in 1849. The church was 34'x55' with a steeple and cost $260 in labor. The voting membership at that time was 50. During the decade 1850-1860 the congregation grew to such an extent that the Indiana Avenue church became too small and a new church was erected on the corner of Franklin and Superior Streets which was dedicated in 1864. This church unfortunately burned completely in the Great Chicago Fire of October 9, 1871.

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