St Matthew Lutheran Calgary 70 Years Apart

The Calgary neighbourhood of Bridgeland is home St Matthew Lutheran Church and this fine looking structure is well over a century old. We’ll look at it twice, first in the mid-1950s (when called Jehovah Lutheran Church) and then again today. Over seventy years later it looks the same and so does that little house next door.

Completed in 1913 as the Moravian Church, it served that group until 1945 when a Lutheran congregation moved in. The Moravian Church had a declining membership and needed something smaller. Meanwhile, the Lutheran Church was seeing the opposite, and so the two groups traded locations. A datestone on St Matthew Church today commemorates the change over.

Not long before the 1940s exchange a serious fire damaged the sanctuary of the Moravian Church and this became the tipping point for the congregation. Repairs were a financial impossibility. The new owners fixed it up and at the same time changed the name to Jehovah Lutheran Church (sometimes shown as Jehovah Evangelical Lutheran Church). It became St Matthew (sometimes St Matthew’s) Lutheran in 1960.

The original Lutheran Church, only a block away, now became the Moravian Church. In later years it was sometimes called the Moravian Mennonite Church or Central Moravian Church (old Calgary phonebooks). The “little white church” (as it was also called), still exists as a home and we’ve shared a photo of it below.

St Matthew Church is in the Gothic Revival style and popular at the time of its construction. Especially so for places of faith. Typical elements include distinctive arched windows, often of varying size, steeply pitched roofs and prominent spires or steeples. The building is historically recognized and as you can see, nicely kept up.

“With its gothic design, this red brick structure was intended to emulate the religious edifices of eastern Germany.” – Hermis.ca. Moravians were were typically German speaking and most hailed from Eastern Europe.

The little bungalow on the left similarly appears to have changed little over the years and according to the city it dates to 1937. It’s covered in that crushed glass stucco so popular in the mid-century era. A small house by any standards, it’s on prime piece of land on a dead-end street, and has a view over the city. It’s amazing no one has bought and redeveloped the property. That’s the Calgary way after all.

One day someone will show up with a dump-truck load of cash and it’ll be gone.

The old Calgary General Hospital (with the curved façade) is seen in the background of the then photo. That sprawling complex dated back to the the 1940s-’50s and was demolished in the 1990s. A steeple belonging to Pentecostal Holiness Church is seen there in back. That church last makes mention about 1970-ish and the property now functions as a parking lot for St Matthew.

The community of Bridgeland goes back to around 1910 and is just across the Bow River, plus a little northeast of Calgary’s downtown core. They called it German Town early on and that’s due to the many people that spoke the language living in the neighbourhood. There was and is a surprising number of churches in the immediate area and a quick map count shows something close to a dozen nearby today.

The original photo dates to 1955, and ours is from April 2025. Seventy years separate the images but unless you look close it’s not obvious. The city of Calgary is so dynamic and seems to change day to day, yet the view from this alley belies the fact. The cross atop the steeple is different, but otherwise that’s the only distinct change to the church.

Two old late ’40s or early ’50s era cars seen in the then image, but they’re too far back and the original photo too small to reliably identify.

The Moravian Faith is a branch of Protestantism and dates from the 1700s. It was founded and therefor most heavily practiced, in Eastern Europe. Lutheranism, also an offshoot of Protestant Christianity, dates form the 1500s and has origins in central Europe. Of the two Lutheranism has a larger member base, but ideology wise and very broadly speaking, they seem similar in more ways than not.

The Then photo is thanks to the Calgary Public Library and is from the Alison Jackson collection. Alison, an advocate for preserving Calgary’s history, was a prolific photographer and documented many old building in the city. She was active during the 1950s to 1970s period and her collection is huge. So much she documented has vanished and browsing the images is doorway to another time.

St Matthew, or Matthew the Apostle was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus and Jehovah is one of the many names given God. They offer services at St Matthew Church today in both German and English.

Know more (new tab): St Matthew Lutheran Church Calgary Bridgeland and Photographer Alison Jackson Calgary.

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Date of adventure: 1955 (Alison) + April and May 2025 (us).
Location: Calgary, Bridgeland.
Article references and thanks: Alison Jackson Collection @ Calgary Library, Alberta Heritage Survey Program (Hermis.ca), Henderson Directories, Medicine Hat & District Genealogical Society, the City of Calgary and St Matthew Lutheran Church Bridgeland.

St Matthew Church Bridgeland Calgary 1955 and 2025.

70 years later and the scene appears much as it was.

Built in 1913.

First the Moravian Church, then Jehovah Lutheran and now St Matthew Lutheran.

They moved from here in the 1940s – it’s now a home.

Services are held in German and English.

Marking the date the congregation acquired the building.