A historic Fort Dodge congregation that began in 1870 recently lost its second parent church building within a year. The recent demolition of the Full Gospel Lighthouse Church on the west side of the Des Moines River marked the disappearance of what was originally built as the First Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Church.

Avenue C was the main artery of the West Side area known for generations as Swedetown. The corner of C and J Street, where the Swedish church once thrived, was the heart of the ethnic neighborhood. Just one block toward the river and directly on its bank was a small log cabin place of worship. Official documents in the Webster County Courthouse show the 1873 transaction of the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Church buying that land from David and Elizabeth Fessler for the sum of $50. Fessler once had a fur trading post where the Blanden Memorial Art Museum now stands.

This church was the first Lutheran church in Webster County. The congregation outgrew the little log building but opposing factions could not agree on a new location. The proponents of an east side location laid their cornerstone on Nov. 7, 1902. They had organized under the name Swedish Bethlehem Lutheran Church. It was familiarly known as the Bethlehem Lutheran Church and was located at the corner of First Avenue North and 11th Street. Bethlehem Lutheran was destroyed by fire last summer.

The parishioners of the congregation who stayed in Swedetown dedicated their new church building on Nov. 12, 1905. The First Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Church was called Swedish Lutheran and First Lutheran.

The two congregations on opposite sides of the river eventually merged and a new building was dedicated in the fall of 1956. Grace Lutheran Church is located at the corner of Ninth Street and Second Avenue South.Worship continues under the leadership of the Rev. Matthew Martens.