That report we passed on last Friday about the congregation of Immanuel Lutheran Church in the Heights voting to turn its former sanctuary at the corner of Cortlandt and 15th St. into a museum of Lutheran history turns out to have been false. City Council members Edward Gonzalez and Sue Lovell, who announced the decision in a press release, jumped the gun a bit:

Lovell spokesman Tim Brookover said the councilwoman’s office received a report from a preservationist attending the meeting that there had “been a lot of talk about a Lutheran museum” and presumed the church group approved the plan.

Though informally discussed, such a proposal has not been formally presented to the governing board, [board president Ken Bakenhus] said.

But there was some progress at the meeting: The congregation did vote to reject local artist and engineer Gus Kopriva’s proposal to lease the sanctuary and turn it into an art museum, the Chronicle‘s Allan Turner reports.

Bakenhus told Turner late last year that the board was “’99 percent’ in favor” of spending $60,000 to demolish the 1932 brick building. The church has a signed contract to tear down the structure this summer.

• Church’s fate in advocates’ hands [Houston Chronicle]
• Museum idea could save threatened Heights church [Houston Chronicle]
• Previously on Swamplot: Immanuel Lutheran Church Likes a Different Museum Idea, Saved by a HAM: The Museum Plan for Immanuel Lutheran Church, Immanuel Lutheran Church: Saved for Demolition Next Year, Can This Lutheran Church Be Saved?

Photo: Heights Blog