First German Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church
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Towngate Theater (First German Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church)
c. 1850. 2118 Market St.
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(West Virginia Collection within the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)
The former German Lutheran Protestant Church stands directly across Market Street from St. Alphonsus German Catholic Church. The red brick building was built as a Congregational church several years before the Lutherans first held services in it in 1852. A textbook example of mid-nineteenth-century Gothic Revival design, the church exudes a proper Protestant primness. A projecting tower centers the facade and contains the street-level entrance. Buttresses with stone caps provide support at the corners and between side-wall bays, while tall, narrow, lancet windows light the secondfloor sanctuary. The former church now houses a community theater and cinema operated by the Oglebay Institute (see WH76).
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