From left, David Walrod, property committee chair; Karen Linn, church council vice-president, The Rev. Mark E. Swanson, Pastor; along with Chautauqua Region Community Foundation Members; Elizabeth Jones, community impact officer; and Julia Niles, grants manager. Submitted photo

One of the oldest churches in Jamestown has received a cosmetic and structural facelift and is ready to celebrate it with the community.

First Lutheran Church, 120 Chandler St., recently completed upgrades and repair work as part of its Chancel Restoration Project, thanks to a grant the church received from the Chautauqua Regional Community Foundation. The church will celebrate the recent upgrades to the chancel area on Sunday at a combined 10 a.m. festive worship service in the church nave.

According to the Rev. Mark Swanson, pastor of First Lutheran Church, the contractor, Michael Hutley, owner of Chautauqua Flooring Company, replaced the old aging carpet with beautiful new red oak flooring, he said. It was a very slow, tedious process because all the stairs leading up to the high altar were rounded. It took craftsmanship to accomplish a process of installing a seamlessly smooth flooring for the chancel area. It took two months to be completed. New electrical work was also done in the sanctuary as well as some repair-painting in the church nave.

“Our congregation wishes to extend our thanks to the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation for the generous grant that made all this work possible along with generous donors from within the church as well as the community. This project enhances the worship space and greatly improves the acoustics of this magnificent edifice. This is especially significant as First Lutheran is the mother church of Lutheran Churches in the Jamestown area,” Swanson said.

First Lutheran is part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America denomination. First Lutheran has a long and storied history in Jamestown. In the mid-19th Century, a great migration of Swedish immigrants settled in the Jamestown area. First Lutheran Church became the first Swedish church in this area and was organized in 1856. The first church was a white wooden-framed church on the same site where the current church edifice stands. The church sat 200 people. Under the leadership of the Rev. C.O.E. Hultgren, the small congregation grew to several hundred members. Pastor Hultgren served the congregation for 32 years, from 1862-1894,” said Brian Bogey, church organist.

“It was during the tenure of the Rev. Dr. Julius Lincoln that the completion of construction of our current First Lutheran Church complex took place. Dr. Lincoln was pastor from 1896-1919. It wasn’t until the 1890s, that the congregation started constructing the current First Lutheran Church building with the first stone being laid on August 3, 1892, and the cornerstone was laid by Bishop Von Scheele of Visby, Sweden on July 13, 1893,” said Bogey. “However, the 1000-seat church building wasn’t completed until 1901. The first major redesign of the church nave occurred in 1916 when the entire nave was reconstructed. Gas lighting was installed and the large round stained-glass window above the altar was removed, and the high altar was raised to its current height. The high altar had previously been on the ground floor and as a result, many parishioners could not see the altar especially from the balcony and the side pews on the first floor. Therefore, they elevated the high altar four feet higher with five stairs leading up to it where it currently stands today.”

The next major redesign of the church nave took place when the church was celebrating its 100th year anniversary in 1956. Under the leadership of the Rev. Dr. Paul A. Westerberg, pastor from 1950-1976, the congregation took on the renovation of the church nave, the rebuilding of the church organ, along with the construction of the new Educational Building and Memorial Chapel.

Additionally, First Lutheran is also the homesite for many decades of the Jamestown High School A Cappella Choir, who will be celebrating their 100 Anniversary this coming December with two Vesper Services. The First Lutheran congregation wanted to complete this renovation to help celebrate the choir’s 100 Anniversary Celebration.

The church is scheduled to observe the first vespers on Sunday, Dec. 8, at 4 p.m. The second vespers will be an A Cappella Choir Alumni Vespers, Dec. 14, at 4 p.m. Church officials are expecting 300 A Cappella alumni members who will join the current A Cappella Choir under the direction of Lauren Scharf. Bogey, a JHS A Cappella choir director emeritus, and Norman D. Lydell will also direct the current A Cappella Choir and Alumni Choir in singing traditional carols and choral excerpts from George F. Handel’s Messiah.