Historic Old Munichburg parsonage razed

Demolition begins Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016 at the Central United Church of Christ's parsonage in Jefferson City.
Demolition begins Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016 at the Central United Church of Christ's parsonage in Jefferson City.

A 118-year-old German, brick home has come down in Jefferson City's Old Munichburg neighborhood.

The Central United Church of Christ parsonage, 713 Washington St., housed the city's first bowling alley, as well as several of the congregation's pastors.

The city's Historic Preservation Commission encouraged the owner to consider alternatives to demolition. However, church leaders deemed the building, especially its foundation, no longer structurally sound, Church Council President Harry Kujath said.

"We didn't want to remove it. We would have loved to keep the building and use it for something, but the condition of the building is so severe it is almost impossible to make it safe," he said.

The 1898 two-story brick home served as parsonage until 1982 and was last used by the Calvary Lutheran School re-sell store, Calvary's Gift, which moved out about two years ago.

Prominent local architect Charles Opel designed it, though it was not the congregation's first parsonage, South Side historian Walter Schroeder wrote. Fred Buehrle, a congregation member like architect Opel, did the brickwork, and Ernst Braun and Schwartz did the construction. Schroeder speculated the limestone foundation may have been recycled from the 1860 parsonage.

The German Protestant congregation organized in 1858 and built its first church on the corner of Ashley and Washington streets the next year. The congregation built the existing Gothic church in 1892.

Six years later, they decided to build the existing parsonage in the Queen Anne style, similar to other Munichburg residences being built at that time, Schroeder wrote.

According to Schroeder's book, "South Side Sketches," the historic building saw 151 weddings between 1923-39, and during World War II, four-leaf clovers from the backyard were sent to servicemembers as lucky charms.

The church does not have definite plans for the cleared lot, Kujath said.

"We'll put that space to better use than it is right now," he said.