Category:St. John's Lutheran Church, Philadelphia

The congregation of Saint John's Evangelical Lutheran Church was organized in 1806, by Lutherans who wished to worship in English, rather than the traditional German. Its 1808 Federal-style building, designed by engineer Frederick Graff, stood on the north side of Race Street, between 5th and 6th Streets. William Rush carved the wooden eagle that was the church's emblem.

"St. John's Lutheran Church is on Race Street east of Sixth. It was built in 1808, and was the first English Lutheran Church in the United States." — Philadelphia, A Guide to the City (1920), p. 67.[1]

By the early 1920s, the church building stood in the right-of-way for the approach to the planned Benjamin Franklin Bridge. The congregation built a replica of the brick building in the Overbrook neighborhood of West Philadelphia, and installed much of the original's interiors in the new church. The replica building opened in 1928, and stands at 6100 W. Columbia Avenue, Philadelphia. It is currently known as Freedom Christian Bible Fellowship