Today’s installment of Be a Tourist in Your Own Town is an oldie but a goodie for our family. A visit to Concordia Seminary.
I know. A seminary may seem like an odd place to feature in my Tourist in Your Own Town series, but consider the source. We moved here to St. Louis five years ago to be…a seminary family. (Incidentally, not Concordia, but Covenant. Also incidentally, Craig finishes his second degree NEXT MONTH. And there will be much rejoicing…until the loan deferment wears off and we receive the gift of a steep monthly bill in the mail which will come for the rest of our natural lives. Ahem.)
Okay, so back to Concordia. We lived here for about 15 months when I learned that Concordia allows people to come tour their campus. We couldn’t resist.
While the institution itself was established in 1839, the present location of the seminary came to be in 1927. It is in the heart of the Central West End of St. Louis which is just all kinds of amazing as you step out of the city and into the peace and serenity these 72 acres of landscaping and architectural wonder provide. It was almost enough to make us want to become Lutheran.
We’d heard a rumor before we went that sometimes Concordia students climb the statue of the great reformer himself and place a can of beer in his hands. We asked our tour guide about this. He offered no comment on that. We laughed quietly.
On your tour of the campus you can climb Luther Tower if you are so inclined (get it? inclined? It’s late…)
You can see the tower in the background of this photo:
At the top of this tower you can see the 49-bell carillon that is still played today. More info
on this can be found here.
After you’ve accomplished this feat, you are given one of these “I Climbed Luther Tower” buttons.
I still have mine.
All in all, not a bad way to spend an hour or two in the middle of St. Louis. I recommend it.
Half-Pint House 
I grew up in St. Charles, and fondly remember visiting Concordia seminary with my dad, who was a Lutheran minister. I still have a Bible that he bought me at a used book sale there back in the 70’s. Thanks for the pictures and the memories.
Mary, mom to many
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Jeff and I were just talking about when we went to Concordia. I went there once for their octoberfest. It was great – brats and beer!! And Jeff says he would go and use their library sometime. (I never did that.) If only I’d known we could have climbed Luther tower…
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I didn’t realize you could tour the campus. We’ve got family from Atlanta coming in July. This is a great idea. hmmmmm.
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Just discovered you’ll be at the SBS via a list on Twitter and thought I’d stop by to check out your blog. I love the Tourist in your Town posts! I do a Field Trip Friday meme on my blog, but it’s been a bit slow to catch on! We’re a full-time RV family, that homeschools on the road while traveling with my husbands job. I hope you’ll stop by! Good to meet you- I’ll see you in Denver! Blessings!:)
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When we visited St. Louis for a few days, we only went to a couple of places, and one of them was the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis. So, apparently I’m right on board with this kind of field trip. đŸ™‚
Looks like you had a good time!
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We’ve been there too! It will probably make an appearance in this series at some point. I want to go again now that my kids are older. Beautiful!
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That is really lovely. I lived in Missouri for six years (during and post Covenant years) and only went to the outskirts of Concordia. Now I really regret it.
How come Covenant doesn’t have any statues? Not even Francis Schaeffer. He probably would have held a glass of red wine.
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Megan, I have lived here my whole life and have never been to Concordia but I think I will now. That is beautiful!
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