History is one of those subjects either people love or hate. If you’re one that hates history you may want to skim these few paragraphs. But if you have a little interest in the story of Ascension you may want to stick around for a few more words. Trust me there will not be a test at the end of this history lesson, just a surprise quiz.
Ascension will be 70 years old this coming September. Our church was born on the eleventh of that month on the western outskirts of the City of Waukesha. Not where the church stands now but on Madison Street and Fairview Avenue, a few blocks away. We were not large, but we filled a great need at that time. World War II had ended only a scant four years prior to our birth. Service men and women were being wed and beginning to raise families at one of the highest rates the United States has ever seen. And those men and women needed God. Most people do after seeing and feeling war like everyone did. So God filled the need and brought together a small group that gave birth to Ascension Lutheran Church.
Now Waukesha was a lot different back in 1949 than it is today. Just west of Moreland Road stood nothing but open fields and dairy farms as far as Genesee Depot. Dopp subdivision, the homes that surround our wonderful church right now, had just been commissioned but not a home had been raised yet, and you could still catch the trolley in downtown, or take the train into Milwaukee.
Waukesha was just over 21,000 people, mostly to the east of the Fox River or on the cliff side to the west. You had your choice of three movie theaters in town: The Pix, The Park and The Avon, and you still had to go to the butcher for meat, the bakery for your bread, milk was delivered, and your other necessities came from Schultz Brothers, Woolworth or the Metropolitan. You were well off financially if you made over $4,000 a year and a new 5-room ranch home would have cost you $8,900.
If you would have picked up the Sunday Milwaukee Sentinel (The Freeman didn’t publish on Sundays in 1949) on the day Ascension came to be, the three biggest headlines you would have payed attention too in the 201 page paper would have been, “The Future of Heating Will Be Natural Gas,” “The Brewers Have Beat the Saints to Clinch Third Place” (that’s the St. Paul, Minnesota Saints), and “Green Bay to Play an Exhibition Game … Against Their Rivals the New York Bull Dogs, in Rock Island Illinois.”
Yes, life would have been a little different back in 1949 but now that we have set the stage for where we came to be, next month we will explore how our church was formed and by whom and those first years until we broke ground for our second church here on Dopp St.
Quiz Time (and no cheating)! Who was the president of the United States back in 1949? How many presidents have there been since Ascension came to be? Who was our state governor? And last, how many church buildings has Ascension been in from 1949 to today? Bonus Question for those looking for an A+: How many Pastors have we had in the last 70 years? You will get the answers next month.
Scott Tenwinkel
Council board member, Ascension’s 70th anniversary team
Reprinted from the May 2019 newsletter.
