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In July of 1885, members of Laramie’s German community, which numbered about four hundred persons, met to discuss the possibility of forming a congregation, and securing the services of a minister to preach to them in their own language. The services of a minister, Rev. Johann Frank, were engaged, and the congregation took the name “St. Paulus Deutsche Evangelische Lutherische Kirche.” Laramie’s Presbyterian Church was used as a meeting place until 1890, Wyoming’s year of statehood, when the cornerstone was laid for a new German church.

The building was designed and constructed by a member of the congregation, George Berner. Completed a year later, at a cost of $5,000, St. Paul’s was the seventh church erected in Laramie, and the first German church in the state of Wyoming. St. Paul’s Church is the oldest remaining church in Laramie and is representative of the conservative influences exerted by religious groups in isolated western communities which made significant contributions to a trend toward permanent well ordered civic minded communities in temporary boom towns.

St. Paul’s is associated with German immigrants who made significant contributions to patterns of settlement and growth by providing technical skills, business ability and cultural traditions. St. Paul’s was important within the community as a social and emotional outlet by providing members with a means of maintaining traditions and language well into the 20th century.

The building itself embodies the distinctive characteristics of type period and method of construction as a substantial representation of Lutheran Church architecture adapted to one community’s needs and wants.