[3] The church's vestry and entranceway were added in 1703 to buttress the walls, which had begun to buckle under the weight of the roof.

[3] The tower was added c.1733, and interior alterations were made in 1845, designed by Samuel Sloan.

[6] It moved to its present site in 1677, five years before the founding of the city of Philadelphia, and the graveyard around the church to about the same time.

An existing blockhouse at Wicaco (now South Philadelphia), had been renovated for worship in 1677 and was used until the present church (built beginning in 1698) was consecrated on the First Sunday after Trinity, June 2, 1700.

[9] In 1703, Gloria Dei was the site of the first regular Lutheran ordination in the Americas, that of Justus Falckner, a German theology student.