Christ Evangelical Church Celebrates 125 years!

Early photo of Christ Evangelical Church. On the right, the old parsonage is visible; it was later demolished to make way for a Christian Education annex.

Christ Evangelical Church, located on 33 S. Ellis St. in Cape Girardeau is celebrating their 125th anniversary on August 11, 2019.

Originally founded as a place for German worship, on August 11, 1894, twelve people organized the "German Evangelical Christian Church". They didn't have a facility until 1899, when the current lots were purchased. At that time they were located "on the edge of town", surrounded by corn fields!

Worship services were held in German exclusively until 1922, when the evening services transitioned to English. In 1923, it was determined that if there were a 5th Sunday in any given month, it would be an English service. In 1924, all services except one per month was changed to English (By then, the English services were attended by nearly twice as many as the German services).

Our facilities have been transformed multiple times over the years; an addition was built in 1919 to the original 1899 structure. A new (larger) facility was built in 1929-1930. Large scale renovations were done in the 50s; in 1962 the adjacent parsonage was converted to office and Christian Education facilities. In the 1970s, the parsonage was demolished to make way for the Christian Education Building, which was constructed to be attached to the existing sanctuary.

Christ Evangelical Church Exterior as of 2017.

A photo of the church in 2017, similar to the angle in Photo 1.

Mary Martha Circle (women's group) in the late 1800s.