The sign on the corner of W. 40th St. and Wooddale Ave. S. changed recently from Wooddale Lutheran Church to Vista Lutheran Church, the result of the combination of the parishes of Wooddale and Prince of Peace Lutheran Church on Highway 7 in the Knollwood area of St. Louis Park.

When churches merge, many bishops and synodical leaders recommend a fresh start; a name change to reflect the vision of the congregation moving forward. Lately, I have been thinking Vista Lutheran Church was an interesting name to settle upon. So I looked up in Webster’s-Merriam Dictionary to find two definitions for the word “Vista”: A distant view along an avenue or an opening; an extensive mental view (as over a stretch of time or events).

You may be wondering why a funeral director’s blog would begin with a name change of a church? For me, it is very simple. I grew up in the Wooddale Lutheran church parking lot. The distant view along an avenue was Salem Avenue S., and the opening was the cut-through at the dead-end of our street that led into Wooddale’s parking lot. If you travel to Salem Ave., one block east of Wooddale Ave, you would find 18 homes, most built after World War II, now most having been remodeled and refurbished.  You would not call the vista a “distant” view unless you were learning to ride a bike on the natural incline from Wallin’s home to 41st. St. near Joe and Helen Hartl’s home.

Salem Avenue was a great place to grow up. St. Louis Park in the late 50’s and through the 1960’s was wall to wall children. The 18 homes on our block provided ample playmates for Kick the Can, touch football and daily softball games. Many of those games were held in the dead end street, with an occasional delay for the only daytime car on the block; Millie Wetterlund’s community errand car, the original Uber. As the number of participants in games grew, the natural spot for a larger softball diamond was the parking lot of Wooddale Lutheran Church.

Pastor Paul Obenauf would always greet us on those summer afternoons. He knew us all by name, his parishioners, kids from Aldersgate United Methodist, and especially the Delmore and Battaglia kids- who not only played on his lot all summer, but also walked through the parking lot 4 times each school day commuting to Most Holy Trinity School across Wooddale. Pastor Obenauf and his wife Ruth were extremely well known to all of us and to our mothers- my mother and he were on a first name basis. Wooddale lot was also the thoroughfare to Miracle Mile Shopping Center. With dad at work and no car, moms with kids in tow and coaster wagons to convey their groceries from the Red Owl, would often stop and chat with Pastor Paul.  Salem Avenue had a town square all its own in the parking lot of Wooddale Lutheran.

We all watched intently in the summer of 1964 as Wooddale built the new and current sanctuary. The construction site during afterhours presented plenty of opportunities to climb through construction restraints, always with a lookout for Ralph Wallin, our neighbor, Wooddale Lutheran parishioner, and father of Julie, Karen and Susan, the latter two always in the middle of any adventure we started.

The St. Louis Park Historical Society lists the dedication date of the new church as being held on April 25, 1965. The church was packed with members and neighbors, including 11 year old Dan Delmore. I remember the buzz from the congregation as our pastor from Most Holy Trinity, Fr. William Cornelius McNulty, was on the altar for the dedication and complimented Pastor Obenauf for the kneelers and the daily prayer chapel of the new church. It was ecumenism not seen in 1965.

Over the decades I have attended many neighborhood services there; numerous weddings and the burial services of many of the parents on Salem Ave. who called Wooddale Lutheran their church home. In 1976, the very first months of my funeral home career, I had the sad duty of taking care of 12 year old Jimmy McBride and in more recent years his parents John and Faith, as well as their son, Steve, one of our block mates who died in his early 50’s. The full spectrum of life has been realized at Wooddale Lutheran Church, interwoven in the lives of all of us from Salem Ave. S. 

Rev. Tim Rauk was pastor of Wooddale for 32 years, his years coincided almost exactly with my arrival at the Park Funeral Chapel. He has heard these stories so many times in the car with me he could have written this article from memory, adding the carnage of a broken pickle dish in the Wooddale kitchen to boot. Yes, I am the guilty party!

So, Wooddale Lutheran becomes Vista Lutheran Church. Will it always be Wooddale Lutheran Church to all of us who grew up in the parking lot? Probably so, but here is hoping that the stories and memories become the extensive mental view (as over a stretch of time or events) for many more families, wedding couples and confirmation classes. Wooddale Lutheran Church, the Vista of Salem Ave.

-Dan Delmore, owner of Gearty-Delmore Funeral Chapels and long-time resident of Salem Avenue in St. Louis Park