Bethlehem Lutheran Church

The Bethlehem Lutheran Church, its simple style evincing its strong German heritage, was the social and religious center for the Germans settlers in the Round Top area during the last half of the 19th century. It also housed the first school in Round Top from 1866 to 1878. The church's 1867 cedar pipe organ, thought to be the first made in Texas, has continued to benefit both its parishioners and those who attend the occasional public organ concerts held in the church.

According to church records, the cornerstone was laid on May 6, 1866, and the new building was dedicated on October 28, 1866. The church served as the focus of the religious and community life of the German settlers in the Round Top area. Its dominating position at the end of the town's old main street symbolized the traditional authority of the German Lutheran pastor over his flock.

The town of Round Top was laid out in 1852 by a German immigrant, Edward Henkel, at the place where the roads from Brenham to Austin and Houston to Austin crossed Cummins Creek, and it quickly became a trading and social center for both German and Anglo-American farmers in the northeastern corner of Fayette County. A Lutheran congregation was organized at Round Top in 1855, but it was not until 1861, when Pastor Adam Neuthard arrived, that a move to build a church and school was initiated. Pastor Neuthard was born in Lauterback, Baden, on September 11, 1828, and graduated from the Lutheran seminary of St. Chrischo Chrischona, in Switzerland, in 1860. He came to Texas as a missionary and immediately set about organizing a permanent congregation and school in Round Top. The building of the structure was delayed by the economic deprivations of the Civil War, but in the Spring of 1866, Neuthard persuaded Carl Siegismund Bauer, an experienced stone mason from Weisa, Saxony, and the builder of several other important structures in Round Top, to oversee construction. For five months Bauer, with his sons and sons-in-law just returned from the war, other kinsfolk and people of the community worked together as volunteers to complete the structure.

Another native of Germany, John Traugott Wantke, built the cedar pipe organ still occasionally used by the congregation. The organ was dedicated by the congregation on January 13, 1867. Two other organs built by Wantke are known to be in existence. One is in a New Braunfels museum and the other is owned by Otto Hofmann of Austin, an organ builder himself. The organ has been cited as a "Historical American Organ" by the American Organ Historical Society.

Round Top is a Lutheran community with a strong religious tradition and Bethlehem Church has been its religious and social center for many years. Between 1866 and 1878 it served as a classroom for the pupils who attended Pastor Neuthard's school, the only school in the area, and from 1878 to the early 1960's it was the classroom for Lutheran confirmation classes, which play an important role in the social life of the Round Top community. The church and churchyard are a major attraction for the twenty thousand tourists who annually visit the many historic preservation projects in and near Round Top. Since 1972, it has been the site for a series of organ concerts sponsored by the nearby University of Texas at Austin Winedale Museum. It is a structure with social and historic significance that transcends its purely religious role.