Ebenezer Lutheran Church, ca. 1929–1931 — Columbia, South Carolina. Located at 1301 Richland Street at the corner of Sumter Street, the present Ebenezer Lutheran Church is a distinguished example of Gothic Revival ecclesiastical architecture and an important landmark in downtown Columbia. Designed by Columbia architect James B. Urquhart in association with the Philadelphia firm of Thomas, Martin & Kirkpatrick, the church was constructed between 1929 and 1931 as the congregation outgrew its earlier 1870 sanctuary. The building follows a Latin-cross basilican plan incorporating a narthex, nave, side aisles, transepts, and chancel. Its substantial combination of brick, stone, and concrete is enlivened by pointed-arch openings, brick buttresses, lancet windows, tracery, and stained glass. The asymmetrical principal façade is dominated by a large central tower rising above the entrance, with a square parapet and distinctive corner turret capped by an ogee-shaped dome. The carefully executed brickwork and strong vertical emphasis give the church the characteristic medieval-inspired monumentality of the Gothic Revival.

The 1929–1931 building represents an important chapter in the long history of Ebenezer Lutheran Church, Columbia’s first Lutheran congregation, founded in 1830 by fourteen members. Its construction during the opening years of the Great Depression demonstrated the congregation’s continued growth and commitment to maintaining a substantial downtown presence. The new Gothic church was completed in 1931, when the earlier 1870 sanctuary now known as the Ebenezer Chapel ceased serving as the congregation’s principal worship space. The main church continues to anchor the historic campus at Richland and Sumter Streets and remains an important center of worship, music, education, and community life. Together with the restored Old Church, the complex illustrates more than a century of Lutheran architectural and institutional history in Columbia, while the present sanctuary stands as one of the city’s most impressive early twentieth-century Gothic Revival churches.