Visitors are always welcome!
- We are a member congregation of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod. Although we are located in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, our congregation is part of the North Wisconsin District (geographically situated as the northernmost congregation in the district).
- Sunday worship begins at 10:30am (Eastern Time Zone). We use exclusively the Lutheran Service Book at all services, and offer the Lord’s Supper every Sunday. We observe the historic practice of closed communion.
- Sunday School meets at 9:00am (Pre-school through 8th Grade) from September through May; with a 10:00am Camp Luther Coffee Social on the 4th Sunday.
- Bible study class meets at church every Thursday at 7pm.
History of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church
The congregation was first organized in 1879 with Pastor Wuebben of Hancock and Henry Fedderson being instrumental in its founding. The members celebrated the congregation’s 140th anniversary in 2019. In the beginning, church services were held in individual homes, at a school building on North Fifth Street in Calumet and at the Jefferson School on Calumet Avenue in Calumet. Our first resident Pastor was Rev. F. B. Arnold who was called to serve our congregation in 1880. From 1880 – 1889, the pastors lived in various company houses in the area. The official first church was built and dedicated in 1881 on Scott Street in Calumet at a cost of $3,000. There was an addition added to serve as a school in 1887 at a cost of $760. In 1896, two lots on Tamarack and Second Streets in Laurium were given to our congregation. The parsonage was built and still serves our Pastor today. The congregation was requested by Calumet & Hecla to vacate the lot on Scott Street. The lot across from the parsonage was then purchased. Work on the new church began immediately with the cornerstone being laid in June 1899. The new church was dedicated the Sunday before Christmas in 1899, and serves as the current structure. Services were conducted in German for the first 25 years, and then became all English. The building includes an elaborate altar, large stained glass windows and a beautiful pipe organ. The interior was redecorated in 1979, with no significant alterations. Our congregation dedicated a new addition to the northwest corner of the nave on April 30, 2000; adding an elevator, wheelchair accessible bathroom, and a Pastor’s study.
A parochial school was located in the church on Scott Street in an annex added to the rear of the church. In 1900 classes were held in the basement of our present church until 1905 when a new school was built on First Street in Laurium (formerly the old VFW Building). During the Depression, enrollment at the school dropped considerably and became too much to maintain and was discontinued in 1929. The building was then used as a meeting place for various church societies for ten years, and then sold to the Village of Laurium for $1,000. The congregation received the deed to the two lots adjoining our present church on the north as part of the transaction.
The church was originally organized for the German immigrants to the area and was known as St. Paul German Lutheran Church, as services were held in German. It was later renamed to St. Paul English Lutheran Church when the services were no longer in German. Now it is formally St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church. A confirmation class display of pictures in the basement dates back from 1899 to the present.
We have had fifteen Pastors serve our congregation from 1880 to the present as follows: F.B. Arnold (1880-1889); C. Engelder (1890-1893); J. Huchthausen (1894-1904); A. Kuring (1904-1909); B. Bartling (1909-1918); A. Sommers (1918-1928); A.S. Lucas (1928-1941); W.E. Maas (1942-1955); W.F. Biel (1956-1957); Frank J. Schultz (1958-1976); Frederick P. Buth (1977-1980); Walter R. Leininger (1981-1985); Larry A. Warsinski (1985-1998); James K. Fundum (1999-2016); and Bryan G. Lundquist (2016-present).