Historical Marker

Immanuel Lutheran Church

Historical marker location:

CR 404, 1.5 mi. W, Taylor, Texas

( 1.5 mi. W of Taylor on CR 404)

German immigrants began settling in the new railroad town of Taylor in the 1880s. Lutheran worship services were held as early as 1885, and the Rev. I. J. Glatzle and fourteen families formally organized this congregation in 1888. The Rev. Gus Szillat became the church's first resident pastor when a parsonage was built in 1892. A frame church building completed in 1894 was destroyed in a 1916 fire, but the congregation soon rebuilt. Worship services were conducted in the German language until the 1940s. The church remains a reflection of the town's ethnic heritage.