Michigan Lutheran Seminary - History

History

Michigan Lutheran Seminary began 7002127000000000000127 years, 7002144000000000000144 days1 ago in August 1885 when one teacher and six students assembled in Manchester, Michigan. German Lutherans in Michigan felt a need to train pastors to serve a growing number of immigrant congregations. In 1887, the Reverend Christoph Eberhardt of Saint Paul congregation in Saginaw donated two near-by acres of land on Court Street. This led the Michigan Lutheran Synod to move MLS to its present location and to dedicate Old Main, the school’s first building, later that year.

When the Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota Synods federated in 1892, the new confederation decided to convert MLS into a preparatory school. Disagreement over this change split the Michigan Synod. MLS continued as a pastor-training seminary until dwindling enrollments forced it to close its doors in 1907.

By 1910, the Michigan Synod had re-established its ties with Wisconsin and Minnesota. The confederation called the Reverend Otto J. R. Hoenecke to open MLS as a preparatory school. Five students enrolled on September 13, 1910. In 1913, the school added a dormitory to house fifty students. By the end of the 1920s, four teachers served an enrollment of seventy-five. The MLS Club, a forerunner of today’s Booster Club and MLS Guild, appeared. The campus added two professors’ homes in 1920 and 1924 and a dining hall in 1925.

Growth slowed during the 1930s but picked up after World War II. Pastor Conrad Frey succeeded Director Hoenecke in 1950. To accommodate the growing student body, MLS built a combination classroom building/gymnasium next to Old Main. The dining are was expanded twice, in 1948 and 1954. In 1963, Old Main was finally torn down and a science/music wing with a student union was added.

In 1966, the Reverend Martin Toepel succeeded President C. Frey. Ten years later, a dormitory structure made it possible for all students to live on campus. Previously, some girls liven in off-campus dormitories and some upperclass boys and girls lived in nearby private homes.

In 1978, the Reverend John Lawrenz succeeded President Toepel. Two years later, MLS added an expanded cafeteria on the lower level of the dormitory. In 1985, the three existing campus buildings were melded into a single unit. New construction provided a gymnasium large enough for girls' and boys' athletics, a student commons off the main entrance, additional office space, a computer classroom, expanded parking, and a new maintenance building. On a new section of property a mile and a quarter from its main campus, MLS developed a baseball diamond, a 400-meter oval track, and athletic practice space.

In 1994, the Reverend Paul Prange succeeded President Laawrenz. Since then the campus population has reached its largest enrollment in the school's history, just over 380 students.

In recent years, MLS has continued to upgrade its facilities by reconfiguring all dormitory study space, refurbishing most of its dormitory rooms, equipping its library, classrooms, and offices with infrastructure to allow ready access to developing technologies, and installing into its chapel a 22-rank pipe organ. A new two-story science wing, new music rooms, and a renovated commons and dining hall were dedicated to the glory of God in 2003.

In 2009, President Prange became the administrator for the synod's Board for Ministerial Education (which runs all four of the WELS ministerial education schools); he was succeeded by the Reverend Aaron Frey. The Reverend Joel Petermann was installed in 2012, following a brief interim period which saw Dr. William Zeiger as acting president.

In connection with the 100th Anniversary of MLS being a preparatory high school for the WELS in 2010, the chapel was remodeled and refurbished with new wooden floors and reupholstering of the chapel seating.

While such outward changes must continue in order to meet the need of a growing Seminary family, what is most important at MLS – our great heritage of God’s Word and the vital work of preparing young people to proclaim His Word to others – remains unchanged.

Since 1910, the school has been continuously operated as a ministerial education preparatory high school of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod.