Weehawken’s Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, at the northeast corner of Park Avenue and Columbia Terrace, was designed in 1915 by Hoboken architect Frederick Klie in a vernacular derivative of the English Gothic and constructed that same year (above montage of construction images) by general contractor and parish member Frank Kukuk.

An unassuming architectural organism in the landmark-enriched Weehawken townscape, Good Shepherd holds a bounty of art treasures within: memorial stained-glass windows executed by eminent New York City studios; intricate hand-carved woodwork and furnishings; bronze plaques and wrought metals; and rare fresco murals.

Sheet No. 9, Original Blueprint, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Weehawken, New Jersey (1915); Frederick Klie, Architect: Weehawken’s Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, at the northeast corner of Park Avenue and Columbia Terrace, was designed and constructed in 1915 by Hoboken architect Frederick Klie in a vernacular derivative of the English Gothic. 

The original 1915 architect’s watercolor of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Weehawken. Numerous original and precious archives are kept inside the church’s parsonage building and include black and white photographs, blueprints, architectural watercolors, deeds, incorporation papers, parish texts, and parchments. 

The fresco over the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church altar (above archival photograph) is a true fresco mural painting and is rare for Hudson County. Painted on wet plaster, the panorama of the Risen Christ was executed 1929-1930 by Hans Schmidt and still retains its visual immediacy and vibrancy. Courtesy of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church of Weehawken.

The interior of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church of Weehawken is a visual splendor, in particular the pitched void of a master-carpentered hammer beam ceiling with iron rods and plates strengthening great timber trusses, rafters, beams, braces, and brackets. Within this architectonic embrasure are visceral cycles of memorial stained-glass windows of distinct beauty.

Installed in Good Shepherd Lutheran Church’s west choir loft wall, the Veil Window was executed by A.L. Brink, New York. Dedicated to Jules C. Veil (1884-1926) in 1926 by his family, this, the namesake window of the church, is undoubtedly one of Hudson County’s great stained-glass masterpieces. A glass canvas spectacle showing emotion-filled scenes from Christ’s shepherding years, the window captures the breadth of the life of Veil, an established engineer deeply involved in the church’s building campaigns and philanthropic work