The Largest Lutheran Seminary - Now Selling Off Both Patches of Land

 

Robin Steinke

Luther Seminary to sell St. Paul's More Nimble campus after 120 years

The seminary was founded in 1869.

Luther Seminary's campus in St. Paul, which has operated for 120 years, will be vacated after the 2026-2027 school year, seminary leaders have announced. 

In a statement Tuesday, Luther Seminary President Robin Steinke said the seminary will be seeking a new space in the Twin Cities area and "shifting to a more nimble model" as 70% of its current students choose online education. 

The seminary's Board of Directors voted unanimously to begin the transition, which will involve seeking a buyer for its 10-acre upper campus in the St. Anthony Park neighborhood. 

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Luther Seminary has placed the Lower Campus property—which includes Lauderdale and St. Paul parcels encompassing Northwestern Hall, Stub Hall, and Breck Woods—for sale and is working with CBRE as the real estate broker.

The board approved a future sale of the lower campus in May 2018 as part of an overall campus redesign. The current listing follows a period when the property was removed from active sale due to challenging market conditions. Any proceeds from a potential sale will be reinvested to support the seminary’s mission to educate leaders for Christian communities.

Community members with questions may contact Heidi Droegemueller at hdroegemueller001@luthersem.edu. Please direct any external or media inquiries to Rachel Farris at farrisr@augsburg.edu. Any inquiries related to purchasing the property should be directed to Brian Pankratz, Brian.Pankratz@cbre.com.

Boxing Day - Today - British and Canadian Custom

 

Boxing Day is bound to perplex Americans, but it is honored by Canadians. The day is marked after Christmas Day and known for helping household helpers. Christina thought it was a great idea to visit a couple from my vicarage, and so we went on an icy day when streets were empty except for the sleet falling. I slid down the driveway before I could ring the doorbell, so everyone (except me) was laughing and laughing.

Since nothing really happens in Canada on December 26, the sliding vicar was discussed for a long time afterwards. Christina even asked the older couple for a chance to live upstairs since the seminary duties and degrees were finishing. We were going to fly to England on an incredibly cheap flight because the University of Waterloo club offered an extremely low price for the trip.

Last night, our son Martin was told that he was on the way soon after the two tickets to England were bought. "We can go another time," we imagined. Christina attended her MA degree in German literature at UniWat, and we all enjoyed her honors, Opa and Oma especially. Waterloo Lutheran Seminary faculty paid for my required MDiv stole, which arrived later. 

A few months later, a famous Yale professor was glad to use Christina's research skills at Yale Medical School, where they hosted children's works. I xeroxed next door for the Yale Medical Library, so we often took the little bus together.

The three of us went to Yale Divinity together in the fall of 1972. The first greeter (at the married dorm) was Connie Youngdahl, who said to Christina from the upstairs window, "Are you expecting?" Her husband, decades later, met up with Martin, very considerate.

I put this together last night, for Martin and me - great fun.

The Day Missions Library is next to Yale Divinity Library, where the Revised Standard Version changed the Virgin Birth (Isaiah 7:14), using the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA.

Very little happened at the impressive but ancient Yale Medical Library, on one side. The other, modern side, the latest books, were very small in number, because they were replaced so quickly.