Grace Downtown

has carried out its downtown Milwaukee ministry since 1849. The congregation's first pastor, Johannes Muehlhaeuser, was trained as a missionary in German schools and came to America to serve the thousands of German immigrants who were flocking to the Midwest in the middle of the 19th century. Meeting at first on the west side of the Milwaukee River, the congregation built its first church building on the east side of the river, and has worshipped at the corner of Broadway and Juneau Avenue ever since the dedication of that building in 1851.