Pipe Organs of La Grange, Illinois, Part 8: Grace Lutheran Church June 27, 2021
Stephen Schnurr
Stephen Schnurr is editorial director and publisher of The Diapason
, director of music for Saint Paul Catholic Church, Valparaiso, Indiana, and adjunct instructor in organ for Valparaiso University.
. The information was delivered as a lecture for the Midwinter Pipe Organ Conclave on January 19, 2015, in La Grange, Illinois. The research for this project provides a history of a number of pipe organs in the village, but not all. For instance, organs in residences and theaters are not surveyed.
Grace Lutheran Church of La Grange was organized on April 14, 1887, as the Swedish Lutheran Church, the sixth congregation founded in the village. The lot at the southeast corner of Ogden and South Kensington Avenues was purchased the next month for $600. In June, an architect’s plan for a church measuring twenty feet by fifty feet was accepted, and ground was broken.