The Immanuel Lutheran Church was erected in 1906. Kay Hummel comments “This gothic Church was designed by Charles F. Hummel, partner in Tourtellotte & Co. He was familiar with the style and desires of the parish, having trained and worked in Germany become emigrating to the United States.” Originally organized under a Swedish influence the building was constructed with a Gothic revival. It was under the influence of Reverend Charles E. Bengston when it began. And the church was known as the Swedish Lutheran Church of the Augustana Synod. The Swedish influence began to fade and by 1918 the church’s congregation decided to hold the services in the English language. After this the church’s popularity grew immensely.
This building grabs the attention of people by its Gothic style. This is shown with the offset tower to the left side. The gabled roof faces north and and serves as a belfry. Also the tall pointed arches are common use in this building with large stain-glass windows and arches throughout the walls. Also the ornamentation on top of the tower is very Gothic influential, usually gargoyles decorate the top but instead the church uses four finials mounted with three-dimensional crosses.
Finally, this church is very unique in that it is one of only two Gothic revival buildings in all of Boise. Also, the building is the one out of the two that uses sandstone from the hills of Tablerock. Another notable thing about this church is that it is very small, only 36’x 64′. Its architecture is complimented by such beauty with such little space.