Christ's Lutheran Church in 1932

[ Pastor Horace M. Oberholtzer ] Pastor Horace M. Oberholtzer, D.D., conducting services.

There was a union service fiftieth-anniversary celebration of Dr. Oberholtzer's ordination (the photograph of the pastor is from that celebration): Rev. Paul Kirsch, secretary of the United Lutheran Synod of New York, delivered the sermon. Lydia Russell, 53, directed the choir, which included both current and former members. A group from Dr. Oberholtzer's former congregation in Troy attended.

If you enlarge the photograph of the pastor by clicking it, you will see that the pulpit was still centered on the uppermost level of the sanctuary, with the little marble-topped table in front of it. On the table were the wooden boxes that Pastor Sharts had built in 1877 for collecting the offering. The reed organ is barely visible on the right side of the picture.

[ The church with the tin lizzies ]

Pictured above is how the church looked in its neighborhood on Sunday, with all the "tin lizzies," during the first half of the 1930s. Notice that these automobiles were parked where carriages had once been, including in the carriage shed at the rear of the church. To enlarge the picture, just click it.

In the picture you can see the carriage block, a large piece of bluestone sitting atop a platform of smaller stones between the driveway and the sidewalk leading to the church door. By now the automobile had pretty much replaced the horse-drawn carriage that the carriage block was intended to enable passengers to get into or out of easily. The carriage block was no longer necessary, but according to the later reminiscence of Erwin Holumzer, 12 years old during this year, it was

not useless as it afforded a resting place for weary people coming up or down Mill Hill Road, or a place for a visitor to just sit and look about. It also made a joyous "jumping off stone" for the kids before and after church services.… I believe the last members to use this "carriage block" as such was Mr. and Mrs. Wesley Mosher of West Hurley, N.Y.(1) Quoted in The Scroll, November 1977. (Unless otherwise indicated in a footnote, excerpts from church records or from The Scroll are cited in Anderson, Mark J., For All the Saints: Christ's Lutheran Church, Woodstock, New York, 1806-2006 [Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2006], in this case p. 183.) (Close)

The Woodstock Region in 1932

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The United States in 1932

[ Herbert Hoover ]

Herbert Hoover (Republican) was President. The 72nd Congress was in session. A dollar in that year would be worth $12.38 in 2006 for most consumable products.

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The World at Large in 1932

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Notes

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