History

The Rev. A.E. Kurtz did missionary work in the Palo Alto and San Mateo areas in 1925. He held services at the Women's Club House at Homer and Cowper in Palo Alto. Later that year, the Rev. Paul H.D. Lang was called by the California-Nevada District of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod to serve the Stanford University campus and the Palo Alto mission. Upon graduation from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis in 1925, he had initially been assigned to do mission work in China, but that mission field was closed due to the outbreak of civil war there. Pastor Lang was installed as the pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church on December 6, 1925 at the Women's Club House.

A new church building for Trinity was designed by Charles Sumner, a well known San Francisco architect whose home was in Palo Alto. Ground breaking was held August 19, 1928, first at the Women's Club House and then at the new site at 651 Hamilton at Byron. The church was built by the Minton Company for an estimated $10,000.

The cornerstone was laid on October 20 and the church was dedicated on December 2, 1928, the second Sunday in Advent. The first anniversary was celebrated on December 3, 1929, with the Rev. A.E. Breihan preaching at the morning service and the Rev. T.C. Pieper preaching in the afternoon.

The wood panels on the altar were carved by Pastor Lang and were dedicated on October 27, 1940. A new pipe organ was dedicated April 26, 1941. The stained glass windows on the south side were dedicated on June 10, 1945 at the 20th anniversary celebration of the founding of the congregation.

The rite of blessing a new church site was May 17, 1953. Worship began at the new site on August 2, 1953 before the building was moved! On Thursday, August 27, 1953, the church building was moved from Hamilton Avenue to its present location at the McKenzie Estate. (Many long-time Palo Alto residents remember the building sitting on Middlefield Road when the moving platform broke down.) The church building was rededicated on December 6, 1953. The windows on the north side of the church were dedicated on May 28, 1961.

Pastor Taddey was called as Assistant Pastor in 1964. When Pastor Lang retired in 1965, Pastor Taddey accepted the call as Pastor and was installed as Pastor on Transfiguration Sunday, 1966.

The three-story house on the estate served effectively as a fellowship, meeting, administration, and education facility until 1967. The house was condemned by the City of Palo Alto as unsafe and was demolished on Saturday, July 1, 1967. The present office, education, and fellowship buildings were designed by Carroll Rankin and built by Ira Ota. These buildings were dedicated on May 27, 1968.

On October 21, 1993, an unknown arsonist started a fire in the Church Sacristy. Through God's grace, the fire was discovered almost immediately by Vicar Wiley Smith, and was promptly extinguished by the Palo Alto Fire Department. In one way it can be said the fire was a blessing: many repairs and improvements were accomplished which might not have been made otherwise, including an expanded Sacristy with a new roof line, handicap access to the chancel, new heating and electrical systems were installed, along with fire and burglar alarms, and there was much painting and many repairs. Trinity congregation has much to thank God for, not the least of which is being able to return to its house of worship!

The first of the many beautiful stained-glass windows to be installed at Trinity were the three small windows in the narthex, dedicated March 5, 1944. The center window has a symbol of the Holy Trinity - an equilateral triangle in a circle - reminding one that this church is dedicated to the Triune God and bears the name, Trinity.

The "Rose Window," located high above the altar was dedicated on May 21, 1944. It depicts the crucifixion of Christ, with the two traditional figures at the foot of the cross - Mary, the mother of our Lord, and St. John, the beloved disciple. Since the altar and everything above it should remind worshippers of our Savior's sacrifice on the cross for our redemption, this is the most fitting subject for a window of this kind. The inscription also brings out the fact of our redemption through Christ. It consists of the first letters (IXOYC) of the sentence in the Greek language, Jesous Christos Theou Hios Soter, meaning "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior." In the details of the window we see symbols of the Blessed Sacrament, the 'Blood of Christ which cleanseth us from all sins'.

The windows installed on either side of the chancel, depict the Sacrament of Holy Communion and the Sacrament of Holy Baptism. These were dedicated on October 8, 1944.

On June 10, 1945, the four windows located on the south side of the nave were dedicated at the twentieth anniversary celebration with an organ concert by Ann Hesselmeyer followed by Vespers. The windows on the north side were not installed until the church building was moved to its present location. They were dedicated on May 28, 1961. All the stained glass windows in the nave were laid out by Pastor Lang and designed and built by Carl Hunecke. An interesting window that not many people notice is the "Dream Window" located behind the organ in the balcony. Looking toward the future, it depicts a rocket ship. The shape can be observed from outside the church building.

The last stained-glass windows to be installed at Trinity are the windows in the doors between the narthex and the nave. These were designed and built by the Youth Group in the early 1970's.

Repair of the windows after the fire included their being removed, cleaned and completely re-leaded. Two windows were destroyed - the sacristy window and the one chancel window - and were rebuilt by European Art Glass. The chancel window design was changed to make the Baptismal font reflect our current font's design.

About stained-glass windows, Pastor Lang said in a 1944 bulletin, "...one can get an idea of how the glory of the vibration of light, as it plays through various colors of glass, alive and uplifting, can help to create an atmosphere of worship in a church."

Trinity's Hook and Hastings pipe organ, Opus 1898, is a 2 manual and pedal, 8 rank, mechanical action instrument. Before coming to Trinity it had a rather interesting past. It is said that it came from Boston to Catholic convent and school in San Francisco in 1901 on a clipper ship and was used by the sisters until the earthquake and fire of 1906. The organ survived but was put in storage and then reinstalled in a chapel loft when the convent moved. When the convent moved again, in 1940, to the famous Flood Mansion, it did not fit and had to be sold. It was bought by Trinity for $800 in 1944 from the Schoenstein Organ Company where it had been set up in the factory's studio.

The organ boasts mechanical action (electricity is used only for the air supply) which is the simplest, most dependable and expressive action possible in an organ. Two changes are thought tohave been made since 1901: The wind pressure was raised by the addition of lead weights and a new pedal board of 30 notes was added with only 27 of the notes usable. After the fire, the organ was completely cleaned and restored, and a new air pump motor was installed.

Hook and Hastings are known for their fine craftsmanship, mellow tone, and smooth voicing. Trinity has certainly played a part in preserving a chapter in the history of American organ building.