Get Up and Go to Church -- Walking Tour of Appleton Churches

The Appleton History Museum offers walking tours of Downtown Appleton of various topics... bootlegging, churches, haunted places to name a few. Usually, I am not free or find out about it too late and the tour is sold out. I happen to see that the church walking tour was still available and the hubby was busy so I snagged the last spot.

With our walking shoes laced up, our guide led us to various churches in the downtown area.. seven in all. We would be able to go in four of them. Or that as the plan. Due to time constraints (and weather), we ended up at six of the seven churches and only went in three of them. Since I find church architecture fascinating, this tour was right up my alley. Even though we learned about the history of churches, the architecture was slipped in as we learned about the history.

Our first stop was First United Methodist Church which we also got to inside of. The most intriguing feature of this church was the light fixtures. They feature dragons at the top. The inside may be simple but the wood beams and stained glass were beautiful.

Just up the street from First United Methodist was our second stop -- First English Lutheran Church. Another old church from that has been around for over 100 years, the architecture was definitely English with rounded doors and windows. The pipe organ is truly amazing.

After leaving First United Methodist, we walked over to the first Temple in Appleton. It is no longer used as a temple but the current owners are trying to restore it to it's former glory. The Houdinis worshiped here when they lived in Appleton and Harry's Houdini was the rabbi at one point in time.

I was disappointed to not to be able to go into the next church -- St. Paul Lutheran Church. This was the original German Lutheran church of Appleton. The name of the church was still in the German. With it's twin towers, I'd would have loved to get inside and see all the nooks and crannies. Oh well maybe another time.

We ended over to the site of the first Baptist Church in Appleton which is now a wedding chapel. There's a lot of history to this church including a meeting spot for the KKK, I believe. I would have loved to seen the inside but it was not on the agenda.

Our next two churches were a bit of a walk from the Baptist Church -- St. Mary's and St. Joseph's Catholic Churches. Due to time issues, we ended up only going to St. Mary's. Both of these churches are blocks apart because the Irish and Germans wanted their own church to worship in their native language. St. Mary's is a gorgeous church with typical Catholic touches. It was recently remodeled but it didn't lose any of it's charm.. may have added a bit.

It was a lovely 2+ hours of history and architecture. The hubby asked me if it was worth the $10 and I said, it was definitely worth $9 and if we had a better curator, it would have been worth $10. That's just my opinion... I'm not a big fan of the curator since she is not a great presenter but that's not going to stop me from going to more of these tours in years to come. There's a bootlegger one I'm dying to go on. Our church guides were amazing and full of knowledge of their churches.

I would recommend checking out any of the Get Up and Go Tours offered by the History Museum. You get exercise and learn about Appleton at the same time. It's a great way to spend an evening or afternoon.