From the earliest days of Cedarburg, when horse-drawn wagons worked their way through the mud and mire of Washington Avenue, Immanuel Lutheran Church has been an important factor in the local community.  When the original Immanuel congregation was established in 1852, few would have imagined that it would grow to its current size of nine hundred members.

In the beginning, Immanuel was organized as a congregation of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.  By 1919, the affiliation had changed to the ALC (American Lutheran Church), which evolved into the present ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church of America) organization in 1988.

The congregation's first meetings were held in a small building just south of the current site.  The present church building, built in 1883, cost only $7,745 to construct.