St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church emerged from the Danish Society, which for years had been holding occasional Lutheran services in Danish under the ministry of Pastor Anderson from Brooklyn.  A few Swedes and Germans in the old German Lutheran Church wanted to have services held in English and to raise their children spiritually in the language of their new country. Motivated by the desire to have regular Lutheran services in English, these diverse groups united into a little band of thirty‑five to form a new Lutheran congregation in Poughkeepsie.
The first service for this new group was held in the German Lutheran Church on Grand Street in Poughkeepsie on August 11, 1901. Struggling to be independent, the congregation moved services to the Odd Fellow’s Hall on Main Street, and there, on October 3rd, seated on squeaking folding chairs, they held our first congregational meeting.  Twenty‑six were present, and a youthful group it was to be forming a church council from their own midst. The group adopted a constitution and by‑laws and, thus, officially created a new English Lutheran Church.
By May 1902, a minister willing to undertake the raising of this infant church was found; the Rev. Charles Rahn was officially called to become the first pastor.  St. John’s became a charter member of the Synod of New England and New York.  This was an important step in the developing life of St. John’s, for it was evidence of a desire to be responsible for a share of the work of the Kingdom of God among all people.                    
Everyone agreed that the church could not remain indefinitely in the Odd Fellow’s Hall.  So, in January 1903, after a certain amount of discussion, an old house at 176 Church Street was purchased with the help of a mortgage and remodeled into a church home.
Life went on in its straw‑hatted turn of the century manner, and St. John’s began to grow.  Church financial problems, which included a $2,500 mortgage, were solved by recognizing that church members as a whole could be persuaded to part company with money for dinners and outings when outright contributions seemed impossible.  Strawberry festivals, ham salad suppers, roast beef dinners, ice cream socials, clam chowder feasts, “grocery wheel” lotteries and raffles kept the body of the church together.  These activities were in the spirit of the years and were accepted by the clergy as good ways to raise money.
The choir was strictly informal in those days, yet its seven or eight members always had an anthem ready each Sunday.  Mads Jensen, a founding member, wrought a considerable change to the bare platform at the front of the church room.  On it he placed an altar and pulpit he had designed and carved by hand.
The congregation also started the Ladies Aid Society and the Young Men’s Mutual Benefit Society.  The Moonlight Committee directed what was perhaps the most popular young people’s activity in those days, moonlight sails on the Hudson.  They usually went out in June on the old steamer Commodore.  In 1910, they had a contest to see who could sell the most tickets for that year’s cruise.  The prize was, pessimistically, an umbrella!
In November 1912,  Pastor Rahn was called to a new ministry.  For almost a year, the congregation had no pastor.  These were anxious months while the 160 members tried to find a new spiritual leader.  For two months the church was shuttered.  Finally, in October of 1913, the Rev. J.F. Bermon accepted the call, and with him came the start of a new era.  Just before he was  installed, Pastor Bermon attended the November 1913 congregational meeting  and stated that he thought the time had arrived to consider building a new church.  He called for a vote and the result was unanimous in favor of a new church building.  These were people who only two months before had debated bitterly about whether they could consider an additional $20 a month for a parsonage in addition to the salary of $1,044 per year offered to the new pastor.  This was a church with only $20 in its treasury and with a $2,500  mortgage unreduced in principle since it had been taken out ten years before!  This was a congregation with no demonstrated ability at large scale fund raising and no record of financial stewardship.  What did Pastor Bermon really say?  What spirit moved them that evening to give them faith to tackle such a formidable task?
They moved ahead.  There were those who doubted that they would ever live to see such a new church.   The building committee approved plans calling for a $20,000 church which would seat 300.  Then the Honorable Charles Morschauser, who occasionally attended services at St. John’s, offered to donate the church’s choice of any one of several lots he owned.  The most attractive of these was the Cannon Street property, and the congregation gratefully accepted the gift.  Then the Lutheran Mission Extension Society offered to lend $4,000 for two years without interest. This was a start, but there remained the serious question of where the rest of the money would be found.
In July 1914 the congregation authorized the borrowing of $10,000, and the Church Street property was put up for sale for $7,000.  However, in September, the Sunday School had to lend the church $46 so that it could meet its bills.  In October 1914, the general contract for the building was signed, and, since there was now about $900 in a building account, excavations were started.
In the midst of this flurry of building plans, St. John’s mailed letters to the community in the hope and expectation of reaching and welcoming those who had no church affiliation.  These letters invited people to attend worship services and to bring their children to Sunday School .  Reply post cards were included to encourage people to communicate their interest to Pastor Bermon.

In January 1915, the congregation applied for a $4,000 loan from the Lutheran Mission Extension Society; the cellar was emptied of dirt and the building fund of money.  In February, the congregation was able to borrow $10,000 from the Poughkeepsie Savings Bank, and for the first time mite boxes and Lenten self‑denial boxes went out to the congregation at large.  In April, the old church was sold for $5,825, and the people arranged to rent the Cherry Street Chapel for $3 per week.  During the cornerstone laying ceremonies on April 11, 1915, the chapel was put into premature use when a sudden downpour forced those gathered across the street into its protection. On April 18th, the last service was held in the little upper room on Church Street.  The next week services were officially in the Cherry Street Chapel, the church home until the new church was dedicated in October.
The new church building was dedicated on October 10, 1915, at a special 3:15 P.M. worship service. Rev. William M. Horn, President of the New York and New England Synod, was the preacher for this day.  Former Pastor Charles Rahn offered the prayers.  Pastor Bermon welcomed 40 new members, some by letter of transfer and some by Rite of Confirmation.  There were 235 members and friends of St. John’s in attendance.
The Fifteenth Anniversary of St. John’s was celebrated at a service of Communion on September 18, 1916.  Pastor Bermon’s sermon, “A Retrospect, An Aspect and a Prospect,” was a review of the growth of St. John’s, an inventory of assets and liabilities, and a forecast of possibilities for the years ahead.  At the evening service, his sermon focused on basic Lutheran doctrine and how it applied to daily life.
During this time, the Young Men’s Mutual Benefit Society put all their benefit funds into an organ fund, and with the help of the Ladies Aid, they provided the church with an organ.  Despite the rosy glow engendered by these physical accomplishments, all was not well.  Finances were shaky.  The congregation was forced to borrow an extra $2,500 to meet construction costs.  St. John’s had fallen two years behind in synodical apportionments and  had no plans for meeting the new expense of the mortgage interest.  Even special letters of appeal to the congregation yielded little.  As commitments increased and the inflation of World War I raised costs, donations decreased.
The most serious crisis occurred in September 1917, when Pastor Bermon resigned, not unexpectedly, and giving only three weeks notice.  The Rev. Walter A. Baker from Pennsylvania accepted our call in March of 1918.  The first problem Pastor Baker had to face was our deficit.  As in the past, fund raising activities continued.  The Luther League found new life, and the not‑so‑young Young Men’s Mutual Benefit Society quietly passed on, leaving in its place a lively Brotherhood.  That year there were cake sales, three church suppers, two strawberry festivals, a salad supper, and a baking powder sale. A new form of fund raising, an every member canvass for unspecified donations, yielded a record 65 cents per member.  But the $4,000 loan from the Mission Extension Society was two years overdue.  Pastor Baker knew how to start.  He set  us a goal of reducing the $2,500 note by $500 and asked for pledged contributions.  This is the first record of pledging in St. John’s. Pledges were received, and they were met, but his efforts were continually hampered because our new building required extensive repairs. The old retaining wall in front collapsed, and the tower of steps had to be built.  Plumbing leaked, the organ broke down, and leaky gutters caused rain to stain the interior walls.
At the annual congregational meeting of 1920, Pastor Baker asked for pledges to reduce the mortgage principle by $1,000.  When only twenty‑six pledges were forthcoming, Judge Morschauser came to the rescue again.  He offered to give one‑third of that thousand if the congregation raised the remaining two‑thirds within the span of a year, and he offered to continue doing so until the mortgage was gone.  From that point on, the debt began to shrink.  Pastor Baker”s efforts went so well that the $2,500 note was burned on December 6, 1920.
In June of 1922, Pastor Baker became restless and talked of finding a new charge where he could be challenged more.  What happened between then and December to strain the relationship between him and the council and congregation is not known.  Council minutes maintain a discreet silence except for allusions to dissension within the congregation.  Minutes of a special December congregational meeting, with the pastor absent, reveal that the congregation voted to ask for his resignation. Whatever the reasons,  a hurt Pastor Baker left within two months for a new pastorate,  and less than two weeks later a call was sent to the Rev. Frederick J. Baum of Albany.
With Pastor Baum’s installation in May of 1923, an era of good feeling began.  Boy Scouts resumed. A fund for a badly needed organ was started.  The Women’s Missionary Society was formed in February 1924.  In a new surge of evangelistic spirit, the Brotherhood canvassed Poughkeepsie to bring the unchurched to God.  Electricity was installed in the church, and in 1925 St. John’s began meeting synodical pledges again and paying off those in arrears. Slowly St. John’s turned away from its own troubles, looked out on the world and took its place in the world as God’s representative.

St. John’s 1901 – 1923
St. John’s 1923 – 1956
St. John’s 1956 – 1984
St. John’s 1985 – 2000
St. Johns 2001 – Present