Third Protestant Memorial Church

BeginningsThe roots of this church extend back to the first German congregation that was founded in Cincinnati by Joseph Zaeslein in 1814.^[1] Known as the “German Lutheran and Reformed Church”, and the church was first located in Over-the-Rhine. However, as early as 1817, when Zaeslein died, the congregation began to quarrel. One argument became so heated, with church members stomping and jumping as they argued, that the floor gave way and they all fell through into the basement below.

The church moved several times to new locations. The first split in the congregation occurred in 1832 with the creation of the “United Protestant Evangelical St. Peter’s Church,” Soon after, another split occurred when the German Lutheran and Reformed Church congregation split into two congregations: the “German Protestant St. John’s Church” for immigrants from southern Germany, and the “North German Lutheran Church” for immigrants from northern Germany. During this period, the first German language public school opened, housed in the North German Lutheran Church.^[2]

Figure 5: The Third German Protestant Church along Walnut Street, taken in the 1920s.

The North German Lutheran Church lasted only a short while before it underwent its first split in 1845 with the creation of the “German Evangelical St. Paul’s Congregation.” The North German Lutheran Church flourished for several years, and decided to change its name on December 6^th 1874 to the “Third German Protestant Church.”^[3]

In the years following the Great War with Germany, German churches all over the city began to make serious changes in order to Americanize their congregations. While heavily opposed, church conferences pressured congregations to make the switch from German to English. The process was done in different ways, but the most common was slowly adding services, bible studies, and social events that were solely in English, and then slowly removing the operations that were in German until the church was fully transitioned.^[4] The Third German Protestant Church had to undergo a similar process around this time.

A New Location Figure 6: A program for the dedication of the newly completed church building on Calhoun Street in 1929.

The 1920s was a tough decade for the Third German Protestant Church. The size of the congregation dwindled as more and more people moved up the hill and out of the river basin. A member by the name of Mrs. Christian remarked at a church meeting in August of 1926: “What is to become of our church when we have dwindled so low that we will not be able to pay a minister; our congregation composed of but a handful of members. What will become of the church property?” This is when the idea of moving to a more thriving part of the city began to materialize.

The church then sat on the west side of Walnut Street between 8^th and 9^th streets downtown. Several new sites were proposed, included one at the corner of Glenmary and Clifton Avenue. The congregation finally decided that a site at Calhoun Street and Ohio Avenue was the best option. In March of 1927 the purchase of the lot was finalized, and the congregation began to negotiate the sale of their existing location. In May the building sold for $140,000, and the church temporarily moved into Liberty Hall, located near the new church site.

Plans for the new church building were finalized, and the construction firm John Neyer Inc. broke ground on November 27, 1927. The transition away from a self-conscious German ethnic association also happened at this time, with the adoption of the name Third Protestant Memorial Church. Construction was completed in late January 1929, and dedicated February 10, 1929.^[5] The church thrived at its new location, quickly becoming larger and more vibrant than it had been downtown in a long time.

Recent History

The Third Protestant Memorial Church’s years of upheaval and change were finally over. The congregation kept the same name and same building for the next seventy years. However, the changing neighborhood again caused the congregation to dwindle in size until finally the church disbanded in 2001. This time, there would be no move. The building was immediately renovated and the Urban Outfitters and Verizon

Wireless opened in 2002. The urban reuse project has proven to be a great success, and is a wonderful asset to the local community. This is part of a national trend in the adaptive reuse of historic churches.

Figure 7: The church committee soon after the dedication of the new building along Calhoun Street in 1929.

^[1] Robert C. Rau, "History of the German Evangelical Churches in Cincinnati," GermanAmericanPioneers.org, last modified 2007, accessed October 3, 2011, http://germanamericanpioneers.org/GermanEvangelicalChurchesinCincinnati.

^[2] Don Heinrich Tolzmann, "German Heritage Timeline," German Heritage Guide to the Greater Cincinnati Area, (Milford, OH: Little Miami, 2003), 10.

^[3] Don Heinrich Tolzmann, "Cincinnati's Third German Protestant Church," Das Ohiotal = The Ohio Valley: The German Dimension, (New York: Peter Lang, 1993), 165-83.

^[4] Don Heinrich Tolzmann, "Religious Institutions," The Cincinnati Germans After the Great War, (New York: Peter Lang, 1987), 61-67.

^[5] "Third German Protestant Memorial Church Minutes," 1926-1928, Book 13, German-Americana Collection, Archives and Rare Books Library, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati.