History
Luther Place was built in 1873 by architects Judson York, J.C. Harkness, and Henry Davis. The church, like many others, resembles the shape of a ship, symbolizing a vessel for God's work, and it is well known for its stained glass windows picturing twelve reformers: Gustavus Adolphus, John Huss, John Wycliffe, Philipp Melanchthon, Martin Luther, Martin Luther King, Jr., Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Harriet Tubman, John Knox, John Calvin, Huldrych Zwingli, and John Wesley. The church's exterior is covered with red sandstone from the Seneca Quarry, the same quarry that provided the stone for the Smithsonian Castle.
The church was dedicated as a symbol of healing after the Civil War. In 1904, Luther Place suffered damage from a fire, leading to restoration of the church and a renewed energy and celebration of its mission. President Theodore Roosevelt spoke at the restoration ceremony, saying, "The Lutheran Church is destined to become one of the two or three greatest churches, most distinctly American."
In 2007 the interior of the sanctuary was extensively restored.
Read more about this topic: Luther Place Memorial Church
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“History has neither the venerableness of antiquity, nor the freshness of the modern. It does as if it would go to the beginning of things, which natural history might with reason assume to do; but consider the Universal History, and then tell us,—when did burdock and plantain sprout first?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“What has history to do with me? Mine is the first and only world! I want to report how I find the world. What others have told me about the world is a very small and incidental part of my experience. I have to judge the world, to measure things.”
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)