Cornerstone, First Confirmation, Town Clock
The 1854 Cornerstone and First Confirmation
The cornerstone of the church was laid June 24, 1854 and before the end of the year work had gone far enough to permit the congregation to use the basement as a place of worship. The damage done by the flood that same year was soon corrected and in 1856 the building was completed at a cost of $7,000 and dedicated as Central Lutheran Church. The Rev. Joseph A. Seiss, D.D., LLD., the noted Lutheran Preacher of Philadelphia gave the dedicatory serman.
The first confirmation that took place in the church was that of Mrs. Venable. Her husband had died, and as was the custom then, his funeral sermon was preached on a set occasion, three weeks after his death. It was at the close of the funeral sermon of her husband that Mrs Venable was confirmed.
The Original Town Clock
While the building was in progress, the church council and the town council arranged to put a town clock in the church tower. This was made possible by appropriations of $200 by the county court and $150 by the town council which also agreed to keep the clock in repair. The agreement was dated June 9, 1854 and signed by B. F. Popints, John Brandeburg and J. C. M. Merrillat for the Town council and by George Shuey, George Baylor and Absalom Koiner for the congregation. The old clock was still in use on the same corner in 1940 though the church had been replaced with a department store. Between 1873 and 1877, the church was repaired and stuccoed.
Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church hosted the town clock for Staunton in the tower of it's original building.