A group of women took the first step toward organizing Gloria Dei Lutheran Church. In 1904 a Ladies’ Aid Society was organized with its chief purpose of gathering funds for a church. On September 20, 1905 the congregation organized as the Swedish-Finnish Lutheran Church with 29 charter members. The first confirmation service took place in 1917, with a class of five. The congregation purchased its first building in 1909. The original building was erected in 1862 at Fifth and Franklin by the Presbyterians. The building was moved to a lot at Fifth and Adams and served the congregation, with considerable expansion, until 1951. The name was changed in 1921 to the Evangelical Lutheran Bethesda Church. Services were conducted in Swedish, continuing in some degree until an all-English program was adopted in 1931. In 1935 the name was changed to Gloria Dei Evangelical Lutheran. By this time the congregation included descendants of many ethnic backgrounds. Gloria Dei dedicated its new church at the corner of Harrison and Perry Street in 1951, and the dedication of the present sanctuary and administrative unit took place in 1968.
From the guide to the Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, Olympia, Washington, Records, 1905-2012, (Pacific Lutheran University)
