File:First English Lutheran Church, Lockport, New York - 20230121.jpg

English: First English Lutheran Church, 185 Locust Street, Lockport, New York, January 2023. A work of the Buffalo-based firm of Shelgren & Whitman, the English Gothic-styled design of this handsome 1956 church complex is markedly traditionalist even by the relatively conservative standards of the architects. A prominent vertical orientation is furnished by the narrowness and pointed arches that crown the triple window that's centrally placed on the façade, which like the entrance below is framed by a Gibbs surround executed in cast cut-stone with a repeating pattern of Greek crosses engraved between. Note also the tall but spireless tower, with projecting parapets on the corners giving a crenellated effect. The exterior cladding of hickory brick contrasts with an interior appointed in sand-finished plaster, accentuated with oak trim, and featuring a ceiling with laminated trusses that, according to the architect, symbolize folded arms extending heavenward in prayer. Stained glass windows were imported from the Netherlands. In addition to the sanctuary, the complex also comprises a three-story, Modern-style north wing containing Sunday school classrooms (left background) as well as a parish house (far right, only partly visible). Despite the relative newness of the building, the congregation actually figures among the oldest extant ones in Niagara County: founded in 1837, it was indeed the first Lutheran congregation in and around Lockport to hold services in the English language as opposed to German, but like the others, its congregation was principally German in ethnic origin, being composed largely of farmers who had been displaced from their previous homes in the eastern parts of New York and Pennsylvania during the War of 1812. The original church - the first of three that would house the congregation over the course of its existence - was a simple log structure built by the members themselves on a plot of land donated by local political figure, landowner, and Erie Canal innovator Jesse Hawley and now the site of Ida Fritz Memorial Park. Founding pastor Rev. John Seimser and his successors held services there until 1848, when a combination of the growth of the business district, the move of much of the population to the city's east side, and deferred maintenance on the building led the congregation to purchase the plot on the northwest corner of Locust and Walnut Streets and erect a magnificent large church building, which served the congregation through highs and lows - and several expansions and renovations, including a 1917 teardown of the original façade and its replacement with a fortress like Norman Gothic structure - for the next century plus. Plans for its replacement with the even larger present structured date to 1952, when - in light of increasingly cramped conditions at Sunday services caused by Lockport's steady growth into a satellite suburb of Buffalo and Niagara Falls - the congregation accepted the donation of the former site of the Charles Van Valkenburgh house five blocks north of the existing church, approved the appointment of a Building Committee headed by James Yost, and set about searching for a suitable architect. Fundraising proceeded slowly but steadily, with ground broken on the $250,000 complex in August 1954 and construction lasting two years.