In 1922, a Sunday school met in the old village jail. A circus tent, a shovel in the ground and a little white chapel later, this congregation has spent a century making room — for children, for neighbors, and for anyone wanting to draw closer to Jesus.
1922 – 1949
Arthur Bartelt sees children playing in Shorewood's streets on a Sunday morning. With a committee from Westminster Presbyterian in Milwaukee, he starts a mission Sunday school in a small storefront. The first service follows on Friday, June 16. Soon the village lends its hall for worship — and its old jail for Sunday school.
The congregation buys a lot at Kenmore Place and Oakland Avenue for $2,600. Worship moves into a big circus tent on the corner. Church records say the mosquitoes were not appreciated, and the tent reportedly blew down.
The congregation decides it is time for a real church. Shovels go into the ground for a $20,000 chapel, and neighbors, children and all, turn out to watch.
Sunday school marches over from the village hall, all together, for the opening service under Rev. C. A. Carriel. Classes meet in the basement kitchen, among the pots and pans.
1950 – 1999
The Little White Church is sold to the East Side Hebrew School. Shorewood Presbyterian becomes North Shore Presbyterian Church — a name for the whole north shore, not one village.
The colonial brick church at Bartlett and Kenmore is dedicated, with more than a thousand people there. Every Sunday since — more than three thousand of them — has been held in this room.
The educational wing is added. Godly Play, Sunday School and Compassion Camp all still happen inside it.
2000 – today
Beyond the sanctuary, the congregation adds an outdoor patio — a courtyard for gathering under the trees, marked by the stone pineapple, the old sign of welcome.
The shared kitchen is expanded, and new equipment is lifted into place. A church that once held Sunday school among the pots and pans still keeps a table ready for its neighbors.
